Stone Cold
by dewa95
Summary: What was the feeling a person would have when he found out that the life he'd been living until then was a lie? It all started with a hauntingly beautiful man entering his peaceful life. Or did it start long before that? Long before you were even born? AU NaruSasu Yaoi. R&R
1. Chapter 1:The Meeting

**Chapter 1**

 **The Meeting**

Konoha Academy is an elite private High school with the biggest success rate in the entire country. The students who came out of this academy were well rounded when compared to the students from other High Schools. The students who graduated from this Academy always managed to get into the best Universities in the country and hold the best jobs after their College lives. Getting into Konoha Academy was difficult, extremely so. But once a student makes it into the Academy their lives would be set.

The students of Konoha academy were always the best in their fields be it doctors or lawyers or even chefs. The most important fact here was that they also made extremely good intelligence agents. About 12 percent of all the intelligence agents in Japan who entered the field were from this Academy. That was a record considering the fact that so many people never bothered getting into this field. But ten years ago-in the then graduating class-many of them went into the intelligence fields, be it the Police Force or the Interpol. What makes this school produce so many good agents for the Field, you ask? It is the program they have! The program that includes martial arts training, Criminal Science, Psychology and many other courses which are mandatory to all the students. The teachers themselves are mostly retired agents of the Field who are extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of life.

But not all teachers are agents-or ex-agents- for that matter. There are also teachers like me who have no experience in the intelligence field- that is those that are not skilled in any form of martial arts who just teach for the sake of teaching. But the main thing here is that all the younger teachers that teach in this school like me are former students of this Academy.

So, I, Uzumaki Naruto, am just an ordinary teacher among all the trained hard-asses that teach here. A little about myself…... I am 27 years old. My parents own one of the largest textile industries in the country. We moved to this town away from my mother's home-town about ten years ago. My best friend/sister Sakura moved with us. Her parents died in a terrible fire accident when she was really small and my father took over her guardianship from that point onwards. We both attended Konoha Academy although most students attended the Academy right from Middle School. Sakura-chan is the closest thing I have to a sister in the world. Now an Officer who works for the Police Force under a crazy old grandma called Senju Tsunade, the ultimate hard-ass, Sakura is known to be just big of a bully that Tsunade is.

Sakura is married to emthe/em hot-shot lawyer Uchiha Itachi. He belongs to the prestigious Uchiha clan who own half the city. He is a good man although he is older than Sakura by four years. Their marriage took place quite… suddenly for the lack of a better word about three years ago. They even have a son named Tobi, who turned two last May.

As for me, I teach Advanced Calculus here at the Academy. Most people would never believe me when I say 'emI teach Advanced Calculus and actually hold a Ph.D in mathematics/em', once they look at me. You see I have blonde, spiky hair and eyes as bright and light as the sky. My sunny personality doesn't help matters either. People always assume me to be slow which I am completely not. I had Jiraiya for a teacher, there's no way anyone could be slow after learning from the Pervy Sage himself.

Presently, I am trying to sleep. Whatever I do, sleep keeps evading me tonight. I tried all the things that usually make me sleep which usually include warm milk, stomach full of ramen, and counting sheep. But none of these things seem to be affecting me. Oh well, that's what happens when you wake up in the middle of the day- 2' O clock in the afternoon to be precise- after a night spent partying with my old friends at the Academy. It's 2:00 am now and I am still awake. I had to be up in 5 hours again for the meeting at the Academy. Damn, I need to sleep and fast. There was new martial arts instructor coming to join us tomorrow at the Academy. I heard that the crazy bitch, Anko was needed back on the field. So they were recruiting someone new. Although, I hope whoever they recruited is not as crazy as that woman.

With these thoughts I could feel myself slowly succumbing to exhaustion of the past week and dreaming about stone cold black eyes.

! #$%^%$# !

 _Beep….. beep_

 _Beep…..beep_

The sound was breaking through the last of my sleep. I punched the alarm to make it shut up and quickly started my morning routine. I grabbed some toast at the end and waited for my ride to show up. You see my car broke down about a week ago and my former teacher Hatake Kakashi, who teaches criminal science at the Academy, was my ride.

Hatake Kakashi was once a much feared Interpol agent from what people told me. But I've never seen that side of him before. To him and most of his graduating class back then he was THE most Sadistic teacher and huge pervert who read questionable material in class (the material was actually written by the Head master Jiraiya himself! Can you believe the irony in that?). He was perpetually late to class and would give out the lamest excuses for being late. Most of the times back then we wished he would never come to class though as we would have to deal with his snarky self. No matter how well you've written the assignments he's given you, no matter how well you've written the answers in the test you'd never get an A+ from him. The highest grade he'd give was an A-. They tell me there was only one student he gave an A+ to, but that too was a one-time thing which I now believed to be a rumour. Now though, I see Kakashi-sensei as one of my supportive colleagues. Family, even. A car horn sounded pulling me out of my thoughts and alerting me to my former teacher's presence downstairs waiting for me.

 _That's strange,_ I think. Kakashi sensei is usually always late unlike some of my colleagues at the Academy. I quickly make my way down the stairs and get into the car as he greeted me pleasantly with his smile hidden under the ever-present mask, as usual.

"Good Morning to you too, Kaka-sensei! You're unusually early today, huh. What brought this on?" I said brightly watching him shift gears.

"Jiraiya-sama threatened me and that's all I'm willing to say about the issue, and put on your seat belt Naruto," he answered primly with a bite in his tone at the end.

I felt my eyes going wide at that as I put on my seat belt. "He's threatened you before and you never complied then. Does this have to do with the new instructor at the Academy?"I asked turning sideways slightly to get a better look at his face and trying to make sense of this unnatural behavior of my former teacher.

I could see a faint smile on his face, a genuine one when compared to all the smiles I've seen gracing his face. His eyes softened and he looked genuinely happy and relieved for some reason.

"Yes, Naruto. It's been a while since I've seen this person in relaxed social setting. He is a former student of mine, who is about your age. He was a student of the Academy too," my former teacher said looking straight ahead.

 _A former student … about my age…._

"Wait a minute. Do I know him? If he's my age then I should know him, right?" I asked hoping against hope he's one of my friends.

"No. Even though he's your age he got tired of sitting through the 'boring lessons' at the Academy and decided to graduate early. He graduated before you came to this town. You may not know him but most of your friends from your graduating class know him," he said.

"What do you mean he graduated early? Is it even possible to graduate early from that hellhole um place?" I asked him, surprised and quickly covering up my slip up. Just because I teach at that place doesn't mean I like that place.

"It is, Naruto-kun, especially for people like Shikamaru and the person you're about to meet. You know, how Shikamaru is? Think of the person you're about to meet as Shikamaru-kun minus all the laziness and the passive temperament. This guy has the most explosive temper you'll ever have the pleasure of seeing. You think Sakura-chan's temper is the worst among your graduating class, wait until you see him get mad at someone, though the chances of that happening are low considering how he seems to have grown up," he said with an overly cheerful smile and pride in his eyes I've never seen before. He even had a sadistic look in his eyes when speaking of the temper thing.

"So you want me to be careful around him. Ok, got it. So what is he a top secret Interpol agent like Sai? Police Force? Security Division?" I asked storing everything he said for later thinking.

"Whatever he's done before coming here is something even I don't know. But I don't think he's been in the intelligence field. He left sometime around eight years ago. He'd come home once every six months and would disappear again. His family told me that he'd been travelling the world and his father made a specific comment about him wasting his trust fund away. He disappeared about three years ago. We haven't seen him since then, not me, not his family. He came back about a week ago, I think. We don't know what happened but he wanted a change of scenery so Jiraiya-sama offered him a job. And no, he's a part of neither the Interpol nor the Police Force and no I'm not going to give you any more details about him," he said looking at me through the corner of his eyes as if to say 'I know what you're doing.'

 _Busted….._

"Oh, c'mon Kaka-sensei! Why don't you even up the playing field a little? I mean Hinata-chan and Lee will already know him and I'd feel like an outsider around them. You haven't even told me his name yet," I said pouting a little.

"No Naruto, you'll know his name when Jiraiya-sama introduces him in about ten more minutes. So, be patient," he replied not at all bothered by the pout and he continued saying, "You won't feel like an outsider, trust your friends a little more than that, Naruto."

 _Great…_

I turned my head towards the window and watched as the morning rush began. There were students and employees rushing about. It's been only about 3 months since school started and already I can't wait for the year to get over. I sighed. I knew Kakashi-sensei was watching me every now and then from the corner of his eye but I refused to look at him. I could still be a little childish with him.

We reached the Academy shortly after that. I tried not to be a bit disgruntled, but I think it showed because Kakashi-sensei suddenly ruffled my hair like in the old days. That settled whatever insecurity I'd had because the next second my trademark grin appeared on my face.

I noticed a new car in the teachers' parking lot. A shiny black Nissan GT. I whistled looking at that sweet ride. I had to assume this was the new instructor's car. Soon Kaka-sensei and I entered the teachers' lounge where most of them were already present. Hinata-chan came to greet us with her usual shy smile and happy demeanor.

"Good morning Naruto-kun, Kakashi-sensei. Jiraiya-sama is overlooking the proceedings in his office. They'll get here soon," she said with a happy smile. "It's been a while since I've seen him. I'm happy he's back in town teaching the Academy students," she added a second later.

A strange feeling of jealousy took over me for a second as I noticed how excited Hinata-chan was. Although Lee and Iruka simply looked a little disgruntled. I frowned at that. But soon the jealousy overtook everything I was feeling and I tamped it down as soon as it appeared and Hinata-chan always the quietly observant one put a hand on my elbow squeezing it gently. She soon whispered, "You are a totally different person than _him_ , Naruto-kun. You both hold two totally different places in our hearts, but you hold them nonetheless. So don't worry Naruto-kun."

 _Trust your friends a bit more moron_

That was when the door opened revealing the Pervy Sage. "Come, we'll get this done in my office, _he_ doesn't want the loud welcome party you guys have planned," Jiraiya said chuckling at the stunned expression on some of my colleagues faces.

 _So they'd all been planning a party huh_

We all soon made our way to the Principal's office. There standing in the middle of the room was a tall, lean man who could only be the new instructor. His hair was coal black in color and in the shape of a duck butt from behind. emF/ememunny hair/em. I then noticed that the lean muscles in his back were tensed.

"Come now, Sasuke, don't be so shy. Turn around and say hello," Jiraiya said wrapping an arm around the guy's shoulder. Everyone in the room tensed when we saw emhis/em reaction to the overly familiar gesture. He'd thrown Jiraiya's arm off his shoulder and hissed something in a low threatening tone. Jiraiya only laughed at that which prompted a sigh from the new guy.

I noted his name as Sasuke, the name vaguely familiar name from the past more precisely, from ten years ago. The name Sakura-chan and I usually heard when we joined the Academy. Sasuke shook his head and turned around to look at us and I felt a sudden pit form in my stomach with sudden dread.

His face looked vaguely familiar to me although from where I didn't know. I noted how this Sasuke person carried himself. He looked like he could take down anyone who stood against him or he seemed to hold the confidence that he could. His black long-sleeved shirt showed off his lean muscles all too well alright. But those were not the things that held my attention. No it was not the ever present frown on his face or his pale, perfect skin or the most chiselled features I'd seen in a man.

 _His eyes,_ I thought, _these dark bottom less pools are the same ones from the dream I've been having for the past week…_

 _I stared at the hauntingly beautiful man and felt the first pangs of dread in years…_


	2. Chapter 2: The Altercation

I watched as Hinata-chan gave him one of the monster hugs Kiba taught her. The guy, Sasuke flinched slightly at the hug but hugged her back after a second.

"It's been a while, ne Sasu-nii," I heard her say.

 _Sasu-nii….._

I heard him say something to her which made her giggle and smack him on the arm. The atmosphere was peaceful and everyone seemed content until Lee yelled "Oi! Uchiha-san it's time to decide the greatest fighter bet-"

Uchiha…..Now that had my thoughts running and before I could stop myself I was on a roll yelling at this man I haven't even met before.

"Uchiha! Don't tell me you're that irresponsible little brother of Itachi-san who couldn't even make it to his wedding!" the atmosphere was suddenly filled with an ominous silence. Everyone turned to stare at me with a look akin to horror in their eyes. Hinata was shaking her head ever so slightly and Kakashi-sensei looked as though I'd gone mad. Looking back I noticed that I was on a roll there. I wouldn't have stopped even if you'd threatened me with spilling the last bowl ramen in the world.

"You're the reason why Itachi-san was so upset at the wedding. He didn't even let Shisui-san be the Best Man because he believed nobody could take your place! Sakura-chan has been so worried about Itachi-san and it's all because of you, you bastard! Your brother was getting married here and what was it you were doing? You were half-way across the world partying with women! You are a sorry excuse of a man who-"

It happened so quickly I didn't even see it happen. One second I was yelling at the Uchiha bastard and the next I found myself pinned to the wall with the said bastard nearly choking me. "Sasuke, stop! Don't do it!"I heard someone say to him. But whatever was being said only made him tighten his hold on my neck slightly.

He stared at me with those bottomless obsidian pools for the longest time and I was mesmerized. _How deep can someone's eyes go?_ His face completely devoid of any emotion. At that moment he reminded me of a porcelain doll. His expression was peaceful, almost as if he weren't nearly choking someone. He stared at me like that for some more time, how long I can't tell you, staring at me as if he were searching for something in my eyes. He seemed to have found whatever he was searching for, so he let go of my neck.

I noticed then that although he practically choked me, he hadn't tightened his hold to the point I could no longer breathe. I could still get enough oxygen into my lungs; it was as if he was testing me to see if I would back down from my stand against him. And the weird thing was that I didn't suffer a panic attack when he nearly which I'm sure I would have if there had been real intent behind his attack considering the events of last year.

Behind Sasuke everyone seemed to have let a sigh of relief. But I could feel my anger returning and the next second I exploded once again. I wanted to hit him badly. That in itself was horrifying to me because I was rarely violent. Even if I was, I'd never resort to hitting someone. This man was infuriating me beyond normal levels.

"What was that for, you bastard? Were you planning to ki-"

"I didn't know 'tachi-nii was getting married. And he seems to have conviniently forgotten to tell me that for the past three years.

I could feel my anger slowly draining away as I heard his voice. It was low, smooth and it carried a hint of pride and arrogance to it.

 _Damn the Uchiha! They have one of most successful gene pools ever….wait he didn't even know about the wedding? That's strange….._

"Why wouldn't your brother mention something like that? wah…" I broke of as Sasuke poked me on the forehead. I glared up at him finally noticing the fact that he was taller than I was by nearly 4 centimeters.

He glared at me and said, "Who is this, Kakashi? Is he even qualified to teach? His very voice is giving me a headache." He sneered at me and I wanted to hit him once again

That had my anger rising once again. "You bastard! Who am I huh? I am Uzumaki Naruto! Remember my name."

"Right," I heard Kakashi say. "You heard him, Sasuke."

"Sasuke, I forbid you to pull a stunt like that again! Now get out of here all of you! Class is about to start," Jiraiya said looking rather miffed at the Uchiha, "and Sasuke, you don't have any morning classes. All the morning Martial Arts classes will be taken up by Ebisu. You only have to take care of the afternoon class which will probably start at 2'o clock and you can take that nap you've wanted to take until then. So find a place and curl up. Now get going all of you. I like drama when I am writing it for my book, not in real life."

! #$%^^%$# !

Sasuke was the first to walk out of the room after that. Lee and Iruka-sensei got out next and slowly everyone else left. I had a feeling I embarrassed myself, but then again I didn't care. The only people who remained were Hinata-chan, Kaka-sensei and I. We too walked out of the room and slowly made our way to our classes. There were students milling at every corner of the school now. Bullies letting their prey walk away on seeing our faces, girls squealing, nerds trying to get to class as quickly as possible without getting caught by their tormentors.

Konoha Academy for all its hype about producing the best students was still a High School after all. A High School where there were the popular students, the jocks, the nerds, the outcasts. No matter how many years passed, High School will still be a 'Killed or be killed' world. I shook myself off of these morose thoughts and asked my companions the one question that had been plaguing my mind, my companions who were walking beside me with thoughtful expressions of their own.

"He wasn't planning on killing me, was he? I'd like to think thaty given that you guys were awfully quiet when he was doing it, only meant that he wouldn't have done it."

"Yes, Naruto, he wasn't planning to kill you. The only reason he did that was because he has this annoying habit of analyzing people the second he meets them. In the process of doing that he ruffles some feathers," Kakashi-sensei answered.

I was satisfied with that answer. If he was truly in danger Kakashi-sensei or Lee or even the Pervy sage would have done something. So I nodded and asked the next question that had been plaguing his mind.

"Is it true he'd been partying hard at the time of the wedding? He really didn't end up coming to the wedding because he was busy doing…..that, did he?" I asked quietly still unable to understand how one could miss their big brother's wedding like that.

"We don't know, Naruto. But we do know that if that was indeed what he'd preferred to be doing than attending Itachi-san's wedding then someone from his family would have already killed him for it. But we do know this that if Sasu-nii did do something like that then we do not have the right to judge him. Don't judge him Naruto-kun," Hinata answered this time trying to calm me down.

"But what do you truly believe Hinata-chan?" I asked resisting the topic change.

"What we personally believe is that Sasuke wouldn't have missed Itachi's wedding for anything. Itachi really must have kept Sasuke out of the loop of that one," Kakashi said softly.

"Besides I'm pretty sure Sasu-nii is angry at Itachi-san for not telling him about the wedding. I know that because I saw the look in his eyes when he said that," Hinata reassured him.

"You can read him, huh. You know what he looked like to me Hinata-chan, he looked like one of those plastic models with no emotions. It's frustrating, gahhhh," I exploded.

The students around us looked a bit stunned at my outburst but Hinata-chan and Kakashi-sensei merely released a relieved sigh and chuckled at my most natural reaction. _Two more corners and I could get to class and things will follow a routine again_

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. You only met him. You'll learn how to read him, so don't get so frustrated. Besides you are not usually like this Naruto-kun. Say, are you attracted to him?" she asked me with a sly smile on her normally angelic face. I looked at her horrified. Most of my straight friends try to set me up with anyone they come across. Did I tell you this is one of the only things I hate about my friends?

"Besides you have to admit he's handsome. Most of the girls back in the day used to have a crush on him. You both would look hot together," she said with a blinding smile which made me blush slightly .

"Aww…..you're so cute, Naru-chan. I wonder who would bottom between you two though," Kakashi-sensei teased making me blush even harder and Hinata to laugh even harder at my face.

"I fucking hate you guys and I don't want to get involved with a prick like him," I mumbled and rushed into my class shutting the door after me. I could still hear them laughing at me as they went to their own classes.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down when I heard the voices of my students expressing their concern for me.

"Are you OK, Naru-sensei?"

"You look a little flushed!"

"Do you have a fever?"

I walked to my desk and answered their concern.

"I am fine! Now, where did we end our last class? We were doing some proofs based on some theorems right. So whoever does this-" I said walking over to the board a chalk in hand and writing a corollary on the board, "gets an extra 5 marks in the surprise test which should basically be sometime during these two weeks. So who is going to solve this on the bo-"

The door to the room classroom opened and in came the Konohamaru, the biggest procrastinator in the entire school. He gets good grades but unfortunately he hates math almost as much as I hate Ichiraku's getting closed down for the day. And anyone who knows me would tell you how much I hate to see that shop closed when I get hungry. I love ramen you see. I love ramen to the point that I hold arguments with staff at the Academy basically wanting it to become a staple food in the cafeteria.

Anyway I got out of track there. He's a good kid, one of the popular students but he's a good kid. I walked over to him and flicked him lightly on the nose. He flinched a little and pouted. "Naru-sensei…."he whined.

"Mind telling me why you are late again, Konohamaru? We have been through this for the past three months and yet you still come late. I want a good reason this time, not the lame-assed one you fed me last week."

"I just _hate_ math Naru-sensei. You're way better than the junior high math teacher but I still hate it!" he whined.

"Just because you hate it doesn't mean you should come late to class Konohamaru," one of my other students Moegi said.

"I can't let it go this time, kid. You're spending detention with me after school and we are going to reflect on why you hate it so much," I said. "Now go take your seat. Just be grateful I'm not making you do the problem written on the board." His face paled as he heard that and stared at the board.

I guess I came across as harsh because he looked paler than a ghost all of a sudden. Udon decided to try his luck with the problem and I sat back and watched his attempt, correcting him every now and then. He was finishing up when I heard a quiet voice trying to get my attention

"Sensei… um is it true that we have a new martial arts instructor?"

It was Saito Natsumi, one of my best students here in class. A cute girl with brown hair and large almond shaped eyes. But unfortunately for her she'd come across as a classic nerd case in a high school setting. She was barely five foot tall, so it made defending herself quite difficult in school, which meant that the poor girl often got attacked outside of the classroom. And there was nothing we teachers could do about it because we could never catch them red-handed. She had the afternoon martial arts class.

Normally I would never entertain such questions from her fellow students. But when it came to this kid I always let things slide a little. Because unlike most girls who usually ask such questions to pass it along the rumor mill, she'd genuinely want to know if the teacher was a strict sadist or not. For heavens' sake Anko had been one. So I tried to answer her question as quietly as possible.

"Yes. His name is Uchiha Sasuke. He doesn't seem too unkind." A total lie. "I don't know much about him though. You should ask Hinata-sensei. They were classmates."

After that she quietly went back to her notebook solving the problem. I noticed that Udon was finished with the problem and wrote his name in grade book. After that I wrote a few more problems on the board and asked them to solve in the notebooks. The hour passed quickly after that and I was soon giving them an assignment which would accost for 40 percent of their final grade. After that I left class and walked back to the teachers' lounge and met Kakashi-sensei on the way.

We were both quiet- him thinking about something and me busy being angry with them for the morning's humiliation. We went in and found the Uchiha from the morning sprawled across the only couch present in the lounge.

 _Great…_

We now had to sit in our cubicles. Kakashi-sensei and I were free for the next hour and two consecutive periods after that while Hinata had first two periods back to back on a Monday. Lee was probably in the gym torturing his students with drills. There were some more teachers around but my attention was on the newcomer.

He was sleeping on his stomach using a cushion as a pillow. We couldn't see his face- it was turned towards the wall- but I noted that the guy was fast asleep. I looked around and saw that most of the others were also paying attention to him trying to be as discreet as possible.

I turned to Kakashi-sensei and noticed that he too was watching him. I cleared my throat quietly and told him about my conversation with Natsumi-chan, asking him the one question she had silently urged me to ask.

"What kind of a teacher is he? Is he just another psycho like Anko?"

"I don't think so. But we can never know. We have the afternoon off, Naruto. Why don't we go see how he does? Will that satisfy you?"

"Yeah, you're the best Kaka-sensei!"

Kakashi-sensei was now looking at Sasuke with a worried look. He looked as if he was expecting something to happen but whatever he seemed to want was clearly not happening.

"What's wrong Kaka-sensei?"

He merely shook his head and went back to reading his favorite orange book. I went back to preparing for my next class.

! #$%^^%$# !

The rest of the day went smoothly.

It was a Monday so according to the 3 year old tradition we went to get our lunch from the cafeteria. All the students in the cafeteria were staring at Sasuke- the new toy in the shop. I shook my head and sighed. _These kids never change- correction High School ever changes_. I went to get some ramen and Hinata a yakisoba dish she enjoyed. I was about to walk back to the table when I found Kaka-sensei leading Sasuke away to a corner. A corner that was very close to where I was standing. I could listen to anything being said without being seen. I knew it was bad to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help myself. I am as curious as a cat, mind you.

Kaka-sensei had cornered Sasuke against a wall. And the bastard seemed quite at home with that position as he didn't even blink and still exuded the same confidence that he could get away from any situation. A slow smirk made its way across his face.

"What are you taking, Sasuke?" I heard Kakashi say.

"What do you mean, Kakashi?"

"You know what I mean! You were sleeping in there forever. You are an extremely light sleeper Sasuke. You'd never be able to sleep with people staring at you. I know you and, don't you dare try and deny it."

 _So that was what upset Kaka-sensei before…._

The smirk on the Uchiha's face disappeared only to be replaced by a serious look.

"I'm _not_ taking any drugs, if that's what you're asking me. It's merely sleeping pills. And I know what you're going to say, 'I taught you better. I told you not get involved with sleeping pills or drugs of any sort!' right. I need sleep, end of. They are prescription pills, Kakashi. I am dealing with it. So back off."

I felt like I was intruding in the conversation, so I started to back away when I heard Kakashi say something that poked my interest in the conversation once more.

"How long are you willing to do this to yourself Sasuke? Hasn't it been long enough?"

"As long as it takes me to find what I'm searchi-"

"What _are_ you searching for, Sasuke? Tsunade-sama and Asuma are willing to help you and yet you say n-!"

"I'm _not_ telling you and I'm _not_ asking for help!" there was anger in his eyes as he said this.

Now I really felt like I was intruding so I backed away and went back to the table where Hinata and the others sat. Hinata gave me a questioning look asking me where I was. I babbled some answer to reassure her.

After a few more minutes, Kakashi sensei and the bastard came back. Hinata and the others started speaking to him. He merely grunted some answer. He didn't seem to have the strength to answer the questions, looking exhausted all of a sudden. He had an apple and some juice which was barely enough to satisfy someone's hunger. But he seemed to make do with that. He was slowly watching everyone in the cafeteria looking at the ways students react, watching them with the eyes of a hawk. His eyes would narrow sometimes and they'd widen slightly once but it was gone before I could make it out. I refocused my attention on my ramen and listened into the heated battle of a conversation happening between Ebisu and Lee. It was on how to make students gain more stamina and they had such different views about it that it wasn't even funny. The lunch hour passed quickly with that conversation going on and soon it was time for us to watch Sasuke's first training session

! #$%^^%$# !

We sat back in the bleachers and Hinata joined in as well.

Sasuke was standing in the middle of the dojo waiting for his students to come. He didn't need to wait long because most of them came early to see the new teacher and were all dressed in the traditional Judo gi. Sasuke was dressed simply in a black t-shirt and track pants. Not at all the garb a martial arts instructor would usually wear.

"Kaka-sensei, is that allowed?" I asked pointing to the clothes Sasuke was wearing.

"You are allowed to wear whatever you feel comfortable in Naruto," he answered my question.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I am your new martial arts instructor and what kinds of arts I know is something for me to know and you to find out."

The girls all had a starry look in their as if they were checking out a movie star. I sighed and shook my head. The kids were all sitting on the floor watching his every move, until a student's voice rang out.

"You are Sasuke Uchiha, twenty seven years old, born on July twenty third in the town of Konoha. You have been training in the Arts for nearly all your life. You have an older brother who is the most successful public prosecutor the DA's office has ever seen. You also had another older brother but that name is prohibited in the country. You disappeared around eight years ago. You've been known to come and go as you please. You own an apartment- a pent house suite, actually- in Tokyo and own a black Nissan GT car."

I picked my jaw off the floor where it seemed to have dropped along with the rest of the students after hearing Naoka Kasumi's long speech about the Uchiha. I glanced at the new instructor only to see that there was smirking at her and was that amusement in his eyes?

"Anything else you wished to add, Kid?"

"Oh, there is Uchiha-sensei. You have been living completely off the grid for the past three years that means no credit card -"

"Okay, okay. You've done your research on me, I get it now. I assume you've hacked your way through the Jiraiya's files and the bank I use. I normally don't care about hackers but you should be careful kid, hacking is an offense after all…..:"

"Right, says the guy who along with Ino Yamanaka hacked his way into the stock market just for fun," the girls grumbled.

The guy chuckled and shook his head at her silently asking her to keep quiet. The girl did.

I looked at Kaka-sensei and asked him, "Did he really do that with Ino?"

"Yes. Now that was classic. The punishment they'd received after that was even more entertaining," he said his eyes crinkling a little. We sobered up a little when we heard Sasuke speak again

"Let's start today's class. Every one of you will get a chance to prove yourself against me and show me what that Anko taught you. Now who's gonna start."

The kids seemed to be baffled at what he said and all the info that seemed to have been dropped from nowhere, but my faithful-forever-math-hating student stepped forward and got in a stance to attack when Sasuke stopped him.

"Oh and before you start your attack, state your name and tell me if you are involved in martial arts training outside of school."

Konohamaru looked at him with raised eyebrows and rolled his eyes. Kakashi-sensei sighed and shook his head.

"I'm Sarutobi Konohamaru. I'm trained in Judo, Karate and Kendo," he said confidently.

 _I never knew he was trained in all of that….._

"Hmm…. I assume Asuma trained you in all of that. Now attack, before I do."

All the students and I looked like he'd grown two heads after that. Konohamaru decided to adopt a 'standard Karate position' from Kakashi sensei told me. He inched a little closer and all the while I noticed Sasuke didn't even move from his place.

I noticed Kakashi-sensei leaning forward with his elbows placed on his knees. Knohamaru attacked.

Konohamaru quickly used his left foot to kick Sasuke in the shin which he managed to evade and promptly kicked the kid hard. Konohamaru blocked the kick with both his hands and managed to stay by sheer will due to the power behind the kick. Konhamaru then tried punching Sasuke only to find his fist blocked by Sasuke's right hand. Sasuke then swept out the kid's legs from underneath him and a pained groan came out of Konohamaru's mouth.

The fight was over rather quick.

I stared at Kakashi sensei next to me try and make out what happened. Hinata being the most patient one explained to me that Sasuke was better trained and had far more experience in combat than Konohamaru did.

The next fights were pretty similar in terms of length. What was different however was that Konohamaru tried to attack using the training he's received the next fights were however basically good ol' street fights. Punch and kick, punch and kick. The bad part was that the attacks were so repetitive that even I knew that Sasuke was getting bored.

Then Naoka Kasumi stepped up to face the Uchiha.

"Naoka Kasumi. Never had any training other than Anko-sensei's."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly but he kept quiet as he stared at the kid with a calculating look on his face as if he knew she would be different from the others.

She too had calculating look on her face as she watched her opponent. She quickly ran past him and tried to attack him sideways, which none of them had before. He blocked the attack with an elbow and threw a kick at her which she promptly blocked. The fight continued on for a few more minutes with attack-block cycle until sasuke stopped the fight by raising his hand.

Everyone was surprised Sasuke stopped the fight. The kids who were all yelling for her to give her best were now staring at Sasuke with their mouths gaping.

"Take a breather. Go," Sasuke ordered.

"What?! I was close to beating you!" she protested.

"You are sweating way too much for someone who's 'so close to beating' me," he muttered sarcastically.

It was then that I noticed that Kasumi-chan was panting hard and had sweat pouring over her face in the form of tiny rivers. She stared at him for a second, nodded and backed away.

"That girl's good, Kakashi-sensei. Better than Konohamaru was even." I heard Hinata say.

"No, she's not better than Konohamaru. She just had the precise understanding to do what it took to keep herself in the fight. She didn't charge into the fight blindly like he did. He should know better than to charge at an Uchiha like that."

Then a student after student went to try their luck against the Uchiha. It was during this process that I started to really observe Sasuke's movements. I wasn't ogling per se, merely watching him the way Jiraiya taught me to. His movements I noticed were precise, fluid. He never made a move that wasn't needed. What was the thing that the Pervy Sage said about guys like him? _If you come across someone like that, always run in the opposite direction._

The most astounding thing here was that Sasuke wasn't even out of breath. He looked like he was barely warmed up. He wasn't even concentrating. The look in his eyes told me that his mind was miles away.

 _How can someone like that even exist? How can he look so distracted and at the same time win against kids trained by Anko herself? It's like comat has become second nature to him…._

This guy was dangerous and a large part of my mind was telling me not to trust the guy. But there was also a small part of me that said I could trust him because even Kaka-sensei trusted him. Earning that guy's trust is like earning an entry ticket into fort Knox. It was nearly impossible. What would Sakura-chan tell me if told her this?

" _Don't start, Naruto! You can't judge people like that! You should atleast try and get to know him first."_

That's what she'd say. She'd tell me reserve my judgment until I find out more about the person.

"Naruto-kun, you're drooling!" I hear Hinata say to me.

My hand immediately went to my mouth to check for drool but no, there was nothing there. I turned and glared at the Hyuuga heiress when I heard her giggle at my actions.

"Jokes apart….. What were you thinking? You looked awfully lost in thought there. You were glaring at Sasuke and he even took a glance at what you were doing."

"What?! I was just thinking that Sasuke feels dangerous. I just feel confused. I usually don't have a problem making friends but for some unknown reason I can't make myself consider him as that." I told her after seeing the confused and concerned look on her face. Kakashi sensei turned a little to stare at me in the middle of my little monologue and was staring at me with an unreadable look on his face.

However, before any of them could respond Natsumi-chan's voice pulled us out of our conversation, as she was the only student left in the class of forty-five students?

"Saito Natsumi. I am not good at fighting and Anko sensei left me alone. I don't want to fight, sensei."

That was the oddest introduction I'd heard. I looked to see Sasuke's face and saw that he was sporting an unreadable look on his face.

"You don't want to fight? But you _need_ to. So I'll count to three, you'd better make up your mind and attack me before that or you'll find yourself in detention," we heard Sasuke say in the same bored, uncaring tone he usually spoke in.

"One"

The girl in front of him gulped and looked down at her feet trying not to look intimidated by the teacher.

'Oh c'mon, we also got our asses kicked by him. Go on he won't kill you!' I heard some student yell

"Two."

The booing started. Sasuke glared at the students and immediately they quieted down.

Natsumi-chan's hands clenched into tight little fists.

"Three," he said with a sigh.

"Alright that's enough for today. Tomorrow you'll be assigned a partner who will remain as that for the rest of the year. Your partner will have the qualities you essentially don't so that way you'll both learn something from each other and get stronger. Now get out of here. Everyone, except Saito."

We watched as everyone walked out. They were looking back sneaking glances at the nerd of the Academy as they got out. Konohamaru and Kasumi-chan stayed behind to as if to talk about something.

"What are you waiting for, Konohamaru-kun, Kasumi-chan? Don't you have detention with me, Konohamaru?" I asked them.

"I do, Naru-sensei. I just want to ask Uchiha-sensei about something," he answered looking at me earnestly. Sasuke's voice cut through their conversation.

"I assume you don't want to participate for the rest of the year, either?" he asked his voice carefully blank.

"You assume correctly, Uchiha-sensei," she answered with a tiny voice.

Sasuke pulled on her wrist until they were a few paces away from us. He looked down at her and spoke in a very low tone. She tried to interrupt but he talked over her and when he was finally finished she took a step back from her and bowed to him formally and left with tears in her eyes walking past us with quick graceful steps. But what I failed to notice at that moment was that she looked relieved.

He walked back to us and said one word to the remaining students who were waiting for him.

"No."

"But you never listened to what I have to say!" Konohamaru protested.

"I don't teach idiots who can't even manage an A in a math test," Sasuke replied coldly.

I was once again surprised that the Uchiha had actually read the files on his to-be students. But the thoughts of Konohamaru trying to get an A almost had me in snickers.

"You want me to get an A in math, are you serious Uchiha-sensei? I hate that subject more than Naru-sensei loves his ramen, there's no way I can score A," Konohamaru yelled.

"Then there's no way I'm teaching you. Now go on, I don't want to waste my time with you," Sasuke said, not even bothering to listen to Konohamaru's complaints.

He then looked at the Naoka child and said, "It would be prudent if you stayed out of hacking into other peoples' business for now."

She nodded and opened her mouth to say something when Sasuke said, "No, I don't teach someone who can't stand an hour's training without collapsing."

She looked pissed at him for a moment but nodded a second later and walked out still looking irritated.

He nodded to Kakashi, Hinata and me on his way out and leaving Konohamaru with us.

"Naru-snesei! I want help in math. Please teach me!" Konohamaru pleaded bowing to me, just the way Natsumi-chan had before.

"Fine. Go home today we'll start from tomorrow," I relented. But on the inside I was happy that Konohamaru finally had something to fuel him to study math properly.

"Thanks, Naru-sensei," he said giving me the biggest grin I'd ever seen on his face.

! #$%^^%$# !

The students had gone to their extra-curricular activities after that and we soon found ourselves in the lounge. Sasuke was already gone by the time I glanced at the parking lot.

"That was nice of him; making a student like Konohamaru try to understand and get better grades in math although he could have said it a little differently. Maybe the guy's just a jerk" I said.

"Sasuke is always kind to people in the most unnoticeable of ways," Hinata said quietly lost in some kind of memory.

"By learning and understanding math, it will be easier for a person to start thinking analytically in a fight and make the best moves possible. And frankly the stamina of the Naoka child was pathetic, she wouldn't be able to stand even an hour of Sasuke's training like he himself stated," Kakashi said rather bored with the conversation. "Oi, Naruto lets go home."

We bid goodbye to Hinata after that and made our way to the parking lot. We climbed into Kakashi-sensei's grey Subaru and made our way to my place.

There wasn't any conversation between us but the silence wasn't awkward. It was comfortable, and we were used to this. It was time to go home and change into night clothes, get something to eat and curl up on my bed. These were the thoughts that were being replayed in mind like a broken record on the way home. In the midst of all these thoughts I never noticed a car following us some feet back.

I went home and did precisely what I wanted to do. The only thing I did that wasn't in the schedule was that I gave my mom a call letting her know about my day but keeping the details of the new raven haired addition to myself for some reason. Later that night I fell asleep thinking about raven hair and deep obsidian pools.

! #$%^^%$# !

Outside, there was dark car with a figure inside watching every move the blonde made in his apartment. He took his phone and called a number waiting for the phone to be received on the other side all the while watching blonde sleep.

"The situation is temporarily under control. I got a lock on the target."

A pause.

"He's asleep. Yes, I'll be here. Take care of yourself. Good night…."

The figure hung up and began his long arduous task.


	3. Chapter 3: The Suspicion

**I've done a little research and changed the first and second chapters. I've changed the Organizations according to the settings of the country which is Japan. So please give those two chapters a read too and PM me if I got anything wrong.**

 **Chapter 3: The Suspicion**

All week I've observed the bastard who came to teach at the Academy. He was different from the others, of that I was certain. He was charismatic in an asshole-ish kinda way. The bastard mostly kept to himself during school hours. He never participated in conversation and almost always stayed clear of Lee. I was surprised that the others could even stand his presence.

On Tuesday, I found Natsumi-chan display an emotion that was almost out of character for her. The teen actually looked happy for once and was less of her gloomy self. Then I'd observed that she'd stayed back an hour after school.

On Wednesday I found the same thing happen in the morning. Natsumi-chan looking visibly happy. I asked Konohamaru to follow her discreetly and find out what happened. Later that day after school hours, Konohamaru came back to report. He'd told me she'd stayed back after school and was currently at the dojo fast asleep. He told me that Uchiha-sensei was practicing katas there with an actual sword. I didn't know swords were allowed at school, I'd have to ask Kaka-sensei later. That night I couldn't sleep wondering what the Uchiha did to make her that happy. To make her feel safe enough to sleep in his presence? That's…that's just impossible. I might sound a bit harsh to anyone who knows I'm having thoughts like these but I was once at the bottom of the food chain, when I first joined the Academy. If it weren't for Sakura-chan and the friends I'd made I would have been in pretty much the same position as Natsumi-chan. Which is why I was always gave her some slack in my class. Maybe the Uchiha was a good teacher who knew what a student like her wanted.

Thursday was the day when Lee decided he's had enough of the Uchiha's evasion and confronted him in a place where he would have to be taken seriously and not turn away from the fitness expert. Apparently that place was the dojo where the Uchiha was taking his last class of the day. To turn away from the fight would mean he'd be seen as a coward in front the children he was teaching, the plan Lee concocted was very effective since the Uchiha seemed to value his pride more than anything else. As soon as we found out about Lee challenging Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei and Hinata-chan actually ran to the dojo.

When we got there Jiraiya, Iruka and Ebisu were already looking a tad bit worried. When I asked why, the answer Kaka-sensei gave surprised the hell out of me. Rock Lee had at one point in the early years- the first year of High School to be exact- challenged Sasuke in hand-to-hand combat. Sasuke accepted but the outcome of the fight was not favorable for the Uchiha. Apparently Lee in his excitement to test his skills -against an Uchiha prodigy- managed to break a couple of ribs and dislocated a shoulder. Woah… not a good outcome at all. The Uchiha had to be kept away from tournaments for at least two months after that. Later Lee found out Sasuke wasn't actually in the top physical condition when they fought. Sasuke apparently had a rough training session with Kaka-sensei, Fugaku and his big brother Itachi just a day before the fight he had with Lee- something about helping him get pent up aggression out of the youngest Uchiha.

 _Though to actually piss-off three of the calmest people I've ever met and decide that you needed an intervention, I wonder what the Uchiha actually did to piss them off so badly….._

Needless to after the two months of rest Sasuke had apparently taken Rock Lee down swiftly and quite efficiently from what Kaka-sensei told me. From that day Sasuke had pretty much avoided Lee in the hopes of not getting pushed into a fight. Until today, anyway. The fight itself was very….. high-level? The way those two moved in the fight, punch-block-kick. I could see that Sasuke really didn't want to get into the fight. It was easy to decipher the expressions after watching him for a week. After a brutal kick to Sasuke's stomach and a hit to the shoulder, I could practically see Sasuke's deadly intent rise. He wanted the fight to be over and done with very quickly. The rest of us in the room- the students and us- tensed seeing the expression on the Uchiha's face- his face in a fierce scowl and his teeth gritted. The Uchiha who wasn't even panting on the day he took his first class, was now actually looking exhausted when you got past the scowl on his face that is.

"This is bad," Hinata said. Kakashi-sensei merely nodded and waited to see what Sasuke would next. The next move very much decided the match. Sasuke in a quick move tried to sweep Lee's legs from underneath him, but Lee much to his annoyance jumped up to avoid the consequence of that move. The second Lee came to the earth, Sasuke took hold of Lee's right leg at the knee, firmly pushed on his shoulder to the point Lee lost his balance and was quickly straddled by Sasuke at the waist with two fingers pressed against his throat.

"Move and I'll knock you out. I don't want to prolong this fight anymore and don't you _ever_ interrupt my class like this again," the Uchiha said, his voice low but clearly heard to everyone in the dojo. Lee nodded and was still smiling as Sasuke got up and offered him a hand to get up. Lee slapped the hand away in good humor and got up himself and said, "I'm sorry to have bothered you in the class, my youthful friend. I just wanted to see if you still possessed the same youthfulness you had in our High School days."

With that he stood up and left the dojo leaving a very exhausted but pissed-off Uchiha. "You have two minutes pair up and get started. Move it, _now,_ " the deadly inflection to that tone had had all the kids scrambling up to take their position. All of them, except Natsumi-chan. She merely scooted a little to the side as if offering him a place to sit, which he didn't. we were all standing close to the wall Natsumi-chan was sitting against

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble Saito, get me something to drink," he said quietly.

She scampered off as quickly as she could to find something for the Uchiha to quench his thirst with.

"Good fight, Sasuke," Kaka-sensei said. "You should probably sit down, that kick to the stomach should have hurt." He merely leant back against the dojo wall as discreetly as possible and took deep breaths trying to get his breathing resume regular patterns again. Jiraiya, Ebisu and Iruka left soon after seeing as no bloodshed was involved.

Sasuke didn't acknowledge a word Kaka-sensei said and for a while remained quiet looking and assessing at his students' technique. Natsumi-chan arrived with a bottle of water and he immediately gulped it down in three large gulps. He slowly rotated his left shoulder and I caught a slight flinch as he finally assessed the damage done to it.

"Your stamina's shot to hell, Sasuke. The fight shouldn't have taken that much out of you," Kaka-sensei said trying to get a rise out of the Uchiha."Fugaku would be very disappointed."

"Minoru, watch your feet. I don't want to see a broken ankle," Sasuke said raising his voice slightly so that he could be heard across the dojo. "Yeah, right, when isn't he?" the last part was muttered for Kaka-sensei.

The kid jumped and hastily yelled a 'yes, sensei' and resumed with better footwork.

"We're leaving, Sasu-nii. Let's go Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun." With that Hinata quickly grabbed our arms and dragged us back to the lounge where Lee was collapsed on the lounge.

Later after class was over, I stopped by the dojo to see what Natsumi-chan was doing. She was sitting on the dojo floor doing what I would assume to be homework while the Uchiha sat a few feet away from her sleeping.

Later that night I realized that for Sasuke to sleep in another person's presence without the aid of sleeping pills like on the first day, meant that he trusted the Saito child. It wasn't until much later that I realized how much that one action-sleeping- actually meant in the Uchiha's book. Tomorrow would be a Friday so I decided to do a little experiment to see how much the Uchiha was trusted by his friends and know the intentions of the raven haired man towards the child and the Uchiha family.

It's Friday evening now. Presently I'm getting ready to meet my friends at the sports bar we all frequent on weekends. To Konoha eleven-which consisted of me, Sakura, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Shika, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino- it was pretty much a tradition to spend the Friday night getting trashed at the bar. Not all of them came these days. Sakura-chan had a very busy schedule what with a toddler to care for and the Devil herself as her boss. Shino was busy too, with the research he seemed to be doing to get his PhD in the midst of a very busy schedule with being in the Forensics in the Police Force. Chouji had a restaurant to take care of and was always busy on Fridays. Sai, Neji and Teneten would come whenever they were free of their caseload in the Interpol which was not often. Hinata never came after that one party she got trashed and got into trouble for it at the Hyuuga household (If you ask me it was Neji who kept her away from the alcohol.) It was a good thing too considering how scary Hinata-chan got when she was drunk. Now, that was a memory I'd always bury deep inside and would never allow myself to remember. Lee would come by once in a while but he'd taken to sleeping early on a Friday evenings.

So it was just Kiba, Shika, Ino and me as always. We'd continue the tradition forever if we had a way. Usually Ino and Shika too would have lots of work but they always make time for this. Ino works for the Security Bureau. Shika works under Asuma, the head of the Interpol Tokyo in the administrative area. And unlike baa-chan, he usually gave the Friday night off. Kiba usually took a Friday off being a vet and all. Tonight it would be just the four of us. Again.

My day today started out with Ino blasting my ear off quite early-5'o clock in the morning- to get my ass to the usual place after school. It was just like Ino to wake me up that early only to hang up after yelling a sentence into the phone. Sigh…

The rest of the day had been quite normal after that. My car finally got repaired a couple of days ago. My baby was back. Anyway, I quickly got into my Toyota Supra. I drove to the place relatively under the speed limit not wanting to aggravate the fine I got yesterday. I'd just gotten my car back and went a little over the speed limit and what can I say, I've been slapped with a fine.

It was my turn to be the sober one tonight. Geez, I've had a troubling and I can't even drink away my troubles. My luck always sucks.

I got to the bar and found that the others had already arrived. I went in and spotted Ino waving at me from our usual spot. We've been coming to this place for so long now that that spot was pretty much reserved for us on every Friday. I walked over to see that they'd already started drinking….

 _There go my chances of convincing one of them to remain sober_

"What's up, Naruto?" Kiba asked as I took my seat next to him.

"The cieling," I answered drolly.

Conversation between Ino and Shika stopped as they turned to stare at me.

"Are you okay, Naruto?" Ino asked looking concerned.

"Yeah you look troubled, buddy," Kiba said looking at me.

Shikamaru though simply looked at me waiting for me to answer, not the one to voice his concerns out loud.

"It's just school," I muttered. They all exchanged a glance at that.

I sighed at that. "I'm fine," I muttered. "So what's up with you guys?"

After that I ended up getting the short version of their week they all had. I expected them to forget about it but I guess I sort of forgot how persistent my friends were. A half hour had already passed by the time they all turned on me.

"Isn't Sasuke working at the school now? How is he? Still looking cute?" Ino asked.

"Hey, Ino, why isn't Sasuke here? I mean you guys have known each other all your lives. I thought you'd ask him to come," I asked, quite curious as to the reason why the Uchiha wasn't called.

Ino laughed full-out startling me, and said, "Shika, he's all yours. I have a little errand to run and Kiba's coming with me. We need him. Later fellas."

With that she stood up and walked away pulling Kiba out the door with her. I stared after her wondering why she'd left so early and what she needed Kiba for.

"She has a case where she's profiling a criminal for the Interpol. In all the crime scenes, they seem to have found the pets in the victim's household mutilated along with their owners. That case is seriously troublesome," he said, taking a sip of his beer.

Ino, I seemed to forget, also profiled people for the Criminal Investigative Bureau and the Interpol sometimes.

"And to answer your question, asking Sasuke to get a drink with us is like asking a nun to enter a strip club. On a more serious note though, he isn't much of a fan for alcohol. He's a light-weight from what I remember," the genius said.

I stored that little tidbit of information for later and watched him drink.

"Is that all, Naruto?"

I shook my head and stared at the table. "Lets' go play some table-football," Shika said rising up and stumbling past the other drunken people in the bar. This bar was just like any other one with a huge LCD flat screen on a wall near the counter. We walked past all the others and made our way to table.

"So, Shika, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, Naruto. Ino's left you with me, so I'd better answer your questions rather than getting an earful later," he said looking bored and jerking his hands steadily.

"I don't like Uchiha."

"That's a statement, you dumbass."

"Why don't I like him?"

"How should I know, Naruto? It's your head."

It was then that all the things I bottled up for the whole week burst out of me with the force of a hurricane. I told him how the Uchiha's first day at the Academy went. I told him how he nearly choked me just to see how I'd react, how he slept nearly all morning, the conversation I'd over-heard between Kaka-sensei and the Uchiha. Everything. Shikamaru didn't interrupt. He continued to listen to everything sighing in between, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at something I said. I then went on to explain my current suspicions.

"There is also a student, Natsumi. She's a- what people call- nerd in the High School environment. She told Sasuke she didn't want to fight, so he simply made her stay after class and talked to her. She left with tears in her eyes, Shika. He made her cry, HER. It's….I've never seen anyone say anything that could make her cry. It's almost crazy. She wasn't sobbing per se, but yeah.." I trailed off.

"What does making her cry have anything to do with anything, Naruto?" Shikamaru's first words ever since I began.

In the middle of my growing tirade, Shikamaru had dragged me away from the table and outside. We sat on a bench nearby where he sat smoking, looking at the parking lot. That was one of the few bad habits he'd picked up from Asuma.

"The thing is she's been looking happier ever since that day. She's smiling, Shika, you don't know how strange that is," I muttered.

Shikamaru snorted next to me, "So, you are pissed off because she's happy? That's cold even for you, Naru-chan."

"Don't call me that! You know I hate it Shikamaru," I snarled.

"Right," he replied, "seriously though, if she's happy what's the problem, Naruto?"

"He makes her stay back an hour after school and you know what she does during that time, she sleeps."

"How is sleeping in detention, a problem? I used to sleep in detention all the time." He stubbed the butt against his shoe and threw it into the bin. His eyes were twinkling with amusement. He was chuckling.

"You're gonna make me say it aren't you? I fear he's drugging her," I mumbled.

This time Shikamaru really did laugh out loud.

"What are you laughing at Shikamaru?" I growled. Here I was being a good teacher, trying to think about a student's welfare and there he was laughing at me for worrying.

I could see he was trying to calm himself down, but no such luck; he'd see my face and laugh out loud once again.

"Easy, Naruto," he said in between the chuckles, "that's the funniest thing I've ever heard about Sasuke. Haha.."

"Shikamru," I growled out. He immediately stopped laughing and tried to think of a way to answer.

"Does she have dilated pupils?" Shika asked.

"No."

"Does she scratch her nose, at times during class?"

"No."

"You said she's a nerd. So is she aiming to attract any new attention now?"

"No."

"Her grades, any change there?"

"Nope."

"Do you even think she's getting drugged?"

"No."

It was Shikamaru's turn to stare at me. "What is your problem, Naruto? I know Sasuke is jerk but this kind of judging, even he doesn't deserve."

"What if he's just like Obito?" I asked quietly. "What if he's working for some organization and is trying to get high school kids addicted to drugs? I saw him fight Shika, his reflexes…. He never makes an extra move. He's to-"

I got cut-off as Shikamaru wrapped his hand across my mouth effectively stopping my last words.

He looked around, as if trying to see if anyone heard what I said with wide eyes. Then Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. I saw genuine anger in his face, something that was almost impossible.

There were three brothers, I'm told. Sasuke, Itachi and Obito. Obito was once a very proud Interpol officer who crossed over to the other side. He and his wife Rin went off to work for one of the organizations which caused a huge amount of destruction about twelve years ago. That guy had caused the most damage and broke his adoptive mother Mikoto's heart due to the said destruction he'd caused.

"Never, I mean, NEVER EVER let Sasuke hear those words, Naruto." He sighed as he shook his head.

I watched him wide-eyed because I'd never seen him look as angry or raise his tone to address anyone before especially me. He looked at me and sighed again. For a second he looked like he wanted to take a shot at me.

"Naruto, I'm gonna say this only once, so you better understand. Don't ever mention Obito to Sasuke. He merely gave you the impression of choking you last time, this time he WILL strangle you to death. I've known Sasuke all my life and I've seen what Obito's betrayal did to Sasuke, so you're better off not reminding him about it," Shikamaru said looking at the parking lot in front of us.

I still didn't feel as convinced as I should at Shikamaru's words.

"You still don't seem convinced. Tell me Naruto, what do you think Sasuke has been doing all these years? You've heard of his disappearance correct? Go on, take a guess," he said looking at me as if he were a parent trying to explain a difficult thing to a child.

"Fugaku tells me he's been wasting his trust fund away, Mikoto then yells at Fugaku and says whatever he does is none of our business, Itachi merely tells me he's travelling around the world," I mutter listing all the things the main Uchiha family has said about Sasuke.

He shook his head slightly.

"Tch. Those people…. He's been the travelling the world alright. He helps kids, Naruto. That's all I can tell you. He would never allow one of them to get used to drugs. And Obito, the reason why I told you not to talk about him around Sasuke is that Obito was gentle towards Sasuke unlike the rest of his family. He always placed Saduke first before everyone just like Itachi does. It's because of him that Sasuke's even barely human. Obito was once a very good man Naruto, very good at protecting the people he loved and very good at killing those people who hurt his family. He's dead now and as per Uchiha rules, you never speak ill of the dead. So don't mention him to anyone in the Uchiha family," he said.

His eyes took on glazed look as if he were lost at some point in the past.

"Don't judge him Naruto. That's not fair to him. You're family," he said gently. "You are just trying to protect them- his family; you care about those stuck up jerks- in your own way, Naruto, by being suspicious of Sasuke who hasn't been around that much. His extraordinary skill in fighting doesn't help his case either. You think Mikoto will not be able to take another betrayal by someone so close to her and that may be true. But you don't have to be cautious about Sasuke. That guy may be a jerk, but he would die before causing that kind of pain to Mikoto."

I stared at him hoping whatever Shika said to be true. There was a reason why I hadn't talked about this to Kaka-sensei or Hina-chan. For me, Nara Shikamaru's bored tone calling on my bullshit and explaining how things truly were, had always proved to be the most effective. Even better than Kaka-sensei's lectures or Hina-chan's gentle chiding tone she took while reprimanding me.

"I'm being an asshole, aren't I?" I asked with a small smile coming on to my face.

He smirked, "You're a troublesome guy. It's a wonder I still put up with you, with any of you. Kami, what a drag. But if it makes you feel any better I'll tell you this Sasuke's record is clean and here's some info you can use in the future."

With that he came close to my ear and whispered something that nearly made laugh out of loud. The Nara too chuckled.

"Just be the way you normally are. This serious crap doesn't suit you, dumbass," was Shika' next advice for me.

I'd decided to listen to the lazy genius. I'd known all along that things were okay and I'd been over reacting to everything but I couldn't help myself, not when the family- my extended family- was in danger of getting hurt again.

 _Enough of the seriousness….._

"Say Shika, How is Temari?"

Shikamaru hadn't been expecting this subject change, his eyes widened and lips drew into a scowl and he looked away hiding the slight color that took over his tan face.

"Oh, come on, Shika. You can tell me, I won't tell anyone. I swear," I said as I tried to coax the details of the long time colleague and friend, for whom he'd, developed quite the crush.

From then on for the next hour and half I'd badgered Shika about the details of his love life after getting back to the bar. It was extremely entertaining to watch Shika sputter and yell at me for the period and mutter how troublesome that woman was. He then went on to mutter how troublesome women were in general and going on and on about how his mom was one of the worst in the world. Shika was getting steadily drunk at that point and his complaints of the female species grew steadily funnier as well. He told me how he once used the public transport where after a hard day's work which mostly included sleeping with his eyes open, he encountered a girl- five year old- who started badgering him about every little thing she'd see on the street. That was funny. After that I drove Shika back to his house.

It was 10 by the time I got home thinking of all the things Shika told me about the Uchiha who was now a part of his life.

 _He helps kids. That's all I can say for now…._

Shika's words kept replaying in my head as I fell asleep that night. And in the middle of the night, in midst of sleep, I made an unconscious decision to just be myself like Shika told me to. That was the best thing for the current situation.

! #$%^^%$# !

The next morning I woke to the sound of pounding. I stood up and got to the front door yelling an-"I'm comin, I'm coming"- noting that it wasn't even 7 now as I noted the time in the microwave as I passed the kitchen. There was only one person who would do this so early in the morning. And I could already feel that today was going to be a long day. I opened the door and as expected there was my sister in all but blood standing at my doorway, flanked by her ever stoic husband, Itachi and Kaka-sensei. Little Tobi-kun was absent. I guess Mikoto had him then.

As I stood there with a nearly dumbfounded look on my face that surely said, 'what in the name of all tasty things like ramen, are you guys doing here so early in the morning?'

"Get ready, we're going to have a full family meeting at the Uchiha compound. Move it," Saskura chan said in a no-nonsense tone.

May be it was my sleep riddled brain or my innate lack of self preservation, I don't know which one; I didn't recognize Sakura-chan's do-or-die tone. My next word clearly proved as much.

"Who died? Why so early Sakura-chan, I was having such a nice dream too," I whined. Before I knew what was happening Sakura-chan had smacked the back of my head with a force that nearly sent me falling forward.

"What happened? Why are you so mad at me? This isn't fair Sa-," my words were interrupted by Kaka-sensei's hands pressed to my mouth and he whispered, "I am saving you from your sister's wrath. Now shut up, Naruto."

I nodded frantically and noticed that Sakura-chan had gone to my refrigerator and found all the unhealthy stuff. She went on berating me for all the bad food choices, yelling at the maker of instant ramen and many other things I'd tuned out.

"WHY THE FUCK, DO YOU ONLY HAVE INSTANT RAMEN, NARUTO? YOU EAT ENOUGH OF IT AT ICHIRAKU'S ALREADY!" she yelled.

I discreetly asked Itachi who was watching his wife rage at me, what happened to cause such an intense reaction in my sister. He told me it was the prospect of having to spend the rest of the day with Sasuke. He then told me how disastrous their first meeting-about nearly a week ago-was. He also told me that what happened that Sakura even more pissed was that we had to go to Sasuke's apartment and take him with us. The youngest Uchiha, apparently had a tendency to skip these 'family-days', as Mikoto fondly called them. I sighed and got dressed for the day in an orange button-down shirt and black jeans. By the time I got back, Sakura-chan had stopped yelling at me and was now sitting on my couch with both Kaka-sensei and Itachi on each side.

"Okay, let's go," I said.

We were driving to the apartment where the Uchiha currently lived and I noted that it was slightly on the up-scale side. Itachi was driving and Sakura sitting in the passenger seat. Both Kaka-sensei and I were sitting in the back. Sakura-chan was still quite upset with the Uchiha brother in law. I couldn't help but wonder why so many of us were required to go get the Uchiha to the Compound. I discreetly asked Kaka-sensei that very question. He told that he was merely acting as a body guard in case Sasuke decided to get violent with Itachi, Sakura came along to be some kind of moral support and I was going along so that I would diffuse the situation before it got out of hand.

I was supposed to be some kind of comedic relief huh, and that thought had me glaring at Kaka-sensei and he merely shrugged and pointed to Itachi as if to tell me that it was a plan Itachi concocted. I watched the trees flash by through the window and noticed that although Itachi looked as stoic as ever he too looked as stressed as Sakura.

 _Hmmm…_.

We reached a classy looking apartment. Itachi showed the guard what appeared to be an id of some sort. The guard let us in without a question after that and then the elevator took us to the top floor.

Itachi stood in front of the door for a second as if to collect himself before ringing the doorbell. The door opened almost instantly. But it wasn't Sasuke, it was a red haired (that red hair felt so familiar) woman with glasses. She was dressed in a large long-sleeved t-shirt and sleep pants. She stared at Itachi with narrowed, sleep filled eyes. She then shook her head.

 _Who was this woman?_

"Sasuke is still sleeping. Go away Itachi-san. He doesn't want to see you," she said and promptly shut the door in our faces. Or tried to, anyway as Itachi stopped the door from shutting completely. He pushed the door open slightly and we all watched with gaping mouths at what seemed to be happening.

The two had a staring contest that seemed to go on for hours when in reality only a few minutes seemed to pass. Then another person with straight white hair with slight bluish tints came and put his arms around the woman from behind. The woman promptly elbowed him in the chest and separated herself from him.

"Why'd you do that for, huh bitch? What was taking you so long anyway?" he asked as if mocking her. He smiled at her showing his shark like teeth which was very creepy.

"Oh, shut up, idiot. Deal with them," she said haughtily, pointing at us before going back inside.

 _We are still standing here at the front door…_

The male in front of us took a good look at us and smirked. "Ahh, Itachi-san! What brings you here so early?"

"My mother," he answered, "wants Sasuke to get to the Uchiha manor."

"Oh," he said tilting his head and putting on a thoughtful look with a finger under his chin, "but Sasuke is still sleeping as are half the overworked people in Tokyo. It's best if you guys lea-"

"We're coming in," I heard Itachi say. His voice had a hint of steel and his eyes flashed.

"You Uchiha," he muttered. "Fine, come on in."

As we walked in we heard the guy mutter something that sounded suspiciously like 'Sasuke's going to kill us all.'

No one paid attention to that though. I walked in at the end of our group, and noted that Sasuke lived in a three bed-room condo. It had a spacious living room furnished to give the person comfort. It had black leather sofa set (on which a giant seemed to be sitting), set right next to what would be wall sized window (which led out to a small balcony) with burgundy drapes on the back (you have such a nice view of Tokyo tower from here). There was a small table in front of the sofa with a laptop, a couple of memory cards and several papers strewn over it. The sofa set faced what would I normally call a giant-ass television with international news playing with a low volume and a couch in the corner. There was a book shelf behind the sofa set with all kinds of books in it ranging from astrology to science fiction, medical books to how-to books on automobile care and sword care.

There was a wall separating the living room and what I think would be the kitchen and a narrow passage to the side that led to the bed rooms.

 _This apartment is nice, although it seems too dark to my taste. A little color like orange or yellow will brighten this place up…_

"I told you to deal with them, not let them in. Suigetsu, you moron," the read head whisper yelled and punched him in head.

"Ow, Karin. Do you think you can win against an Uchiha in a stare-down? Kami knows you've had lots with Sasuke," he said mocking her at the end and inching away from her at the same time. "Juugo, keep this crazy woman away from me."

"Karin, take these to your room and keep them there," the giant who'd been quiet so far said, in a low tone, gesturing to the papers strewn on the table and the memory stick.

She huffed, gathered all the papers in her left hand. She then proceeded to pull on the shark man's ear and dragged him through the narrow passage way. A minute later she came back out with Suigetsu in tow.

"We're going back home. I don't want to deal with the shit-storm that's going to take place once you-know-who wakes," she muttered before stalking to the door. Suigetsu gave us all a shark- like smirk and walked away with her.

We all watched the situation with varied emotions; Itachi seemed to be contemplating things quietly, Sakura-chan had a look of disgust on her face and Kaka-sensei had amusement dancing in his eyes.

Me, I had no idea what I was feeling.

"Itachi, who are those people and what are they doing in Sasuke's apartments?" I asked quietly, following the example of the previous inhabitants of the room. I didn't know Sasuke actually lived with people.

"They are Sasuke's friends. They seemed to have spent night here for some reason," he said with blandness to his tone I'd never heard before.

"Itachi-san. Sasuke-san is still asleep and won't probably wake up for another hour or three," the sole friend of Sasuke who was presently in the condo with us said.

It was nearly 8 AM now, so that would mean until 10. I could see Saskura-chan tensing up at that.

"Well, we don't have all day. Wake him!" Sakura said loudly.

"I'm sorry, I can't wake him. None of us should. He needs rest," the giant named Juugo said politely. "And please be quiet."

Sakura was now seething silently next to me until Itachi put a hand on her shoulder. She released a sigh gave a long suffering look and shook herself off the violent thoughts that she was no doubt having.

I decided to ask the question that suddenly came to the fore front of my mind.

"Hey, Juugo-san, tell me why shouldn't we wake the bastard right now?"

He looked at me briefly.

"We had a small party here last night…", "Naruto", "Naruto-san, celebrating Sasuke-san' first week at the Academy. Although Sasuke didn't drink like the rest of us did, he stayed up quite late last night, later than us actually. I woke up at 3 in the morning to still see him awake. He fell asleep shortly after that."

 _3 AM… Party? This place looks awfully clean….._

"We just cleaned up," the orange-head said as though he were reading my mind.

"Oh," I said unable to think of anything else to say, even though I had a million questions.

"Itachi, what should we do? Kaa-san wants us there early and…" Sakura chan said, her sentence trailing off at the end as she looked at expression Itachi's face held.

"We stay here and wait for him to wake up," Kakashi said quietly, speaking up for the first time since we entered the apartment.

We all stared at him. "Are you sure Kaka-sensei?" I asked.

"Yes."

"What will we do until then?" Sakura-chan asked.

"We'll just sit here on this comfortable looking sofa, until your brother-in-law wakes up," Kaka-sensei said and he did just that.

We all looked at each other and I shrugged. Sakura-chan sat in between me and Itachi and just stared at the floor.

"Juugo-san what were those papers?" Itachi asked trying not to look too curious.

"Charity papers," Juugo said. "Sasuke's donating some money to charity again."

I stared at him at that surprised that the Uchiha donated money to charity like the rest of the Uchiha did. All our staring seemed to be making Juugo uncomfortable.

"I'll get you some breakfast," Juugo-san said walking into the kitchen.

"There's really no nee-," Sakura-chan started to say but got cut off by Juugo-san's, "I insist."

"How's the case going, Itachi?" I heard Kaka-sensei ask and turned my attention to them.

"Not so well," he said quietly. "The defense attorney is killing my witnesses on the stand. I've prepared them as much as I could but…."

"I see," Kaka-sensei said quietly.

A few minutes later Juugo came in holding a tray. The tray contained pancakes and lots of them too.

"Pancakes?" I heard Itachi ask. "Sasuke doesn't have a sweet-tooth."

"I made something else for him," Juugo-san said off-handedly and stared at the news again too happy to ignore us.

Itachi seemed to be happy with that answer and we dug in.

The taste exploded in my mouth almost making me moan. Sakura-chan's face took on a look of pure delight at how delicious it tasted.

"I've never tasted such good pancakes in all my lif-" I started to say, but got cut off by a crash coming from one of the rooms in the narrow passage way.

Juugo was immediately on his feet, walking to the door with longer strides than I'd seen him take.

"Sasuke," we heard him say. "I'm coming in."

We stared as the door to the room closed again.

"Looks like we don't have to stay here much longer," I said. The stared at me as if saying, 'Thanks for that Captain Obvious.' I shrugged and went back to eating again.

A couple of moments later the door opened revealing wary looking Juugo followed by a completely unemotional Sasuke. He looked tired. There were circles under his eyes. Upon closer inspection, I saw his hands clenching and unclenching.

"Sasuke," I heard Juugo say almost as if trying to ward him off from physically attacking us.

"Otouto," Itachi said.

A staring contest ensued between the brothers. Desperate to break the tension between them, I quickly thought of things I could say that would do just that.

"Hey teme, why is everything so gloomy and dark in here? Let's go shop for some bright yellow drapes for those windows of yours. This is quite the sweet place you have here! Is it rented or do you own it?" I babbled.

The staring contest broke and Sasuke stared at me as if asking quietly, 'what are you doing here, Dobe?'

I opened my mouth again to answer him but he beat me to it.

"Give me fifteen minutes," Sasuke said before going back inside.

That was pretty anti-climactic. I was pretty sure everyone else was thinking along the same lines. We were all finished with breakfast Juugo-san so graciously made for us in the next couple of minutes. After that we stayed quiet and it got pretty old pretty quickly.

"Say, Juugo-san, How did you meet Sasuke?" I asked.

I saw Juugo stare at Itachi and Kaka-sensei for a second before he responded to my question. "We met abroad, 9 years ago."

"Oh," I said, trying to figure out what more to ask.

"Where do you work, Juugo-san? All three of you really," Sakura-chan asked next.

"I work at a construction company. Karin works as a pet-sitter. Suigetsu works at a local aquarium. Whenever we come back to Tokyo, that is," Juugo said looking disinterested.

"So you travel with Sasuke? Then, where were you the last three years, Juugo-san? Why didn't Sasuke come to the wedding?" I asked.

Juugo opened his mouth as if to answer the question but closed it again. Before he could make up his mind about answering the question though, Sasuke came back into the room wearing black jeans and a burgundy turtle neck and a black coat, looking freshly showered.

"Food's in the kitchen," Juugo replied as Sasuke glanced at the empty plates on the table. He quickly took the plates waving Juugo off as he started to get up. "I'll eat in the kitchen," he said walked into the kitchen.

We stayed quiet as Sasuke ate quickly and came back into the room.

He looked at all our faces again and spoke to Kakashi, "It's going to be a long day, isn't it?"

"Yep," Kaka-sensei said happily. "Let's go-"

The sound of phone ringing cut him off and we looked at Sasuke, who'd gone back to his room to retrieve the ringing phone, his expression tormented for a second before covering it up. Juugo stared at the closed door with an anxious expression.

"What's wrong with answering the phone, Juugo-san?" Kaka-sensei asked looking curiously at the way his former student disappeared. "I've seen him move fast before but that was circumstances where he'd lose a limb if he didn't."

Juugo didn't answer but stood up and started pacing along the wall.

Itachi was staring after his brother worriedly while Sakura and I merely stared at the door of Sasuke's now-closed room.

"Why today?" I heard Juugo say to himself quietly.

Ten minutes later Sasuke came back into the living room his expression blank and not yielding the outside world a single peek into his psyche. But there was one thing that did give away his anger- his hands were clenched into tight fists. Upon closer inspection, he looked as though he'd tear anyone apart at the slightest bit of provocation.

"Nii-san, I'm not coming," he said quietly.

"You're coming with us Sasuke. I'm sorry, but Kaa-san said that your presence at the Manor is mandatory," Itachi said, voice unusually formal.

Everyone tensed at the exchange. I expected the youngest Uchiha brother to snap at that very moment. But nothing seemed to happen. Sasuke merely took a deep breath and spoke.

"Give me one good reason to come with you?"

"Jii-sama will be there at the Manor by the time we get there. He wants to see you. And you get to meet my son," Itachi said looking out of the wall-window.

Itachi's words seemed to give Sasuke the reason required to go to the Manor with us.

He turned to Juugo and started to speak to him in a low tone in …

"Spanish," Kaka-sensei said.

Yes, Spanish. Juugo nodded after a few moments and said something back in the alien language….. erm, excuse me Spanish.

"I'm driving there, alone," Sasuke said taking a key from the key stand on the wall.

Before any of us could object, Sasuke was out the door.

"Don't mind Sasuke, Itachi-san. Some fresh will clear his head," Juugo said

"We'd best go now or we wouldn't be able to catch up with him. Sasuke's most likely to use the stairs we'd be able to catch him before he leaves. Let's get going now," Kaka-sensei said ushering us out the door. "Thanks for the break-fast Juugo-san."

 **I wanted to include the dinner in this chapter but it was getting too long. So I'm cutting it short. The day at the Uchiha Manor will be in the next chapter. Tell me what you think though. Reviews are appreciated. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.**

 **Review:**

 **Guest: I plan for this to be a very long story. About it being NaruSasuNaru, check out the author's note in the second chapter. Thanks for the review.**

 **sielge: Please read the authors' note in the second chapter. That will maybe put your doubts to rest.**

 **Rea: Thanks a lot for reading and for leaving this review.**

 **Hi: hello to you too. I totally agree with you in all the things you've left in the review. And your language is completely understandable. English isn't my first language either, so I hope you people can understand my English.**

 **Thanks for all the reviews and follows.**


	4. Chapter 4:The Day with the Uchihas

**Onto the next chapter.**

 **Chapter 4: The Day with the Uchihas**

We quickly got into the elevator and headed down to the garage where we found Sasuke strapping a helmet onto his head and getting on what would be the sexiest motorcycle I've ever seen before. I whistled at the sight and Sakura gave me a look that clearly said, 'think about getting one of those for yourself and I'll kill you'.

I took my eyes off of the motorcycle after that and focused on my companions. I saw Itachi-san merely slip the keys to Kaka-sensei and get into the back seat with Sakura-chan. So we were riding in the front then.

I looked at the scene before me with a little bit of curiosity but said nothing. I got into the passenger seat and soon we were driving off trying to keep up with the racing Uchiha. Kaka-sensei started the car just as Sasuke rode off from the parking lot.

It was still quite early in the morning- I mean who wouldn't consider 8:00 AM early on a Saturday- and I still didn't feel completely awake. The events at the Uchiha's apartment and the breakfast I ate there only seemed to be more like a dream.

Sakura-chan still seems very upset more so than this morning. But she's hiding it well as neither Itachi nor Kaka-sensei seemed to have picked it up (even if they did; they'd said nothing about it), now that I think about it everyone seems upset. This is so frustrating because I still don't understand what's so wrong with the situation.

I pout and look out the window and notice that we're travelling faster than normal.

It didn't seem so bad to me, honestly though it seemed just like usual family days with the Uchiha family. I never thought that just one person's addition to a day out with the family was going to bring out such strong reactions out of those three, the three who'd never get nervous or lose their cool, ever in any situation. Just what was it about the Uchiha that brings out such reactions in these three? Just what kind of person would he be if he was able to make these three upset at something?

Honestly, Sasuke seemed like an enigma to me. There was no other way to describe him. Even though I promised Shikamaru I wouldn't judge Sasuke, all the circumstances were now against that notion. I mean the guy barely talks and when he does it's always on some level of sarcasm and things were moving fast too, because now I was going to be in the same room with him and my parents. I guped at the thought of having Sasuke meet my Mom. My Mom would always love putting a man like Sasuke in his place. It almost seemed that I had to make an opinion of him now or things would never be the same.

Kaka-sensei sped up a bit more now that we entered into the expressway as the Uchiha manor was located on the outskirts of Tokyo. I looked to the front again to see if we still had Sasuke in our sight and we did. But soon enough Sasuke could be seen maneuvering around all the cars and was zooming away faster than ever before.

"I can't keep up now, with all the cars out here, it isn't safe," Kakashi muttered quietly, looking into rear view mirror to glance at Itachi.

"That boy is going to give me pre-mature grey hairs soon," Itachi said and Kakashi was nodding at him.

"Um.. Kaka-sensei, don't you already have grey hair?" I asked looking at him innocently as I tried to lighten the mood in the car.

"Very funny smart-ass," Sakura mutterd, from behind me.

"Heh heh, that's just me, Uzumaki Naruto, believe it!"

"Right, now we get the famous 'Believe it'," Sakura muttered shaking her as the others chuckled.

"Sakura-chan, come on! Why don't you smile a bit? You know when put on a frown like that you kinda look constipated and Itachi won't like you anymore."

"That's it, you dumbass, I'm gonna kick your butt, you stupid, ugly bastard!" was Sakura-chan's brilliant reply before I felt her smacking me on the back of my head, the force nearly toppling me forward in my seat if not for the seat belt. Kakashi and Itachi were trying very hard not to attract Sakura's anger with their laughter and were pretty sure fighting a losing battle, in the end though their laughter won.

Sakura pouted and shook her head as she said, "I'm telling Mom."

"No you won't!" came three immediate replies from the males in the car.

Mom was Kushina Uzumaki. The woman who could single-handedly make or break a man's life. Her smile would give you the feeling of being the luckiest bastard on earth and her wrath would… ugh, I can't even think about how terrifying her anger is.

All of us in the car had at some point of our short lives managed to have her anger turned at us. There was no way in goddamned hell we were gonna go through that again. No way, nuh uh. Itachi and Kakashi glared at me, having similar thoughts in their minds regarding my sweet mother, almost as if asking me to fix this problem. So I started backtracking immediately.

"Sakura, sis, I'll do anything to make you happy, you know that right? Don't tell, Mom, I promise I'll do anything!" I said as I turned slightly to look at her face.

"Anything?"

"Anything for you, Sakura-chan," I mumbled.

There was a devilish grin on Sakura's face, a grin that gave everyone the creeps in the car the kind that makes me wish I could go back on my word. But that would just bring upon consequences that were worse than what I was about to face.

"You and I are going to stock your kitchen with all the healthy foods in the store. No more ramen for you for another week! As a matter of fact we're going this evening," she said looking smug.

"Anything, but that Sakura! Please don't do this Sis!"

"Nuh uh Naru-kun. I want you eating normal food instead of ramen for a week, so either you're doing this or I'm telling Mom."

I slumped in my seat knowing that once Sakura's mind was set on something and she would do it even if there was an entire army against her. Geez, in true Shikamaru's style, this was so troublesome. "Fine," I relented. Everything went quiet in the car and we still had about half hour to get to the Uchiha house where both my parents and Itachi's would be waiting. Sigh…..

This was going to be a long fucking day…

! #$%^&^%$# !

Something was wrong with his little brother. The light humor in the car had lightened their moods but now with no one saying anything his thoughts went back to his brother like they always did when he had some alone time and no work to do. Itachi knew that better than anyone else that something was wrong. Itachi knew, he just knew. His brother's presence seemed much darker than before. He _knew_ what Sasuke had been doing for the past eight years. And it wasn't good for him and thus tried to stop him from doing it-he really did- but the boy had been too stubborn for his own good. He still remembered the day Sasuke told their father about dropping out of college and shivered inwardly at the memory.

 _An eighteen year old Sasuke was sitting in front of their father after dropping the bomb of discontinuing college. Needless to say their father was extremely upset with that decision but he quickly regained himself and placed his impenetrable mask again._

" _Are you joking, son?"_

" _No. I'm not," was Sasuke's chilling, to-the-point reply._

 _And of course Sasuke was not joking. Sasuke had actually given this a lot of thought and had discussed the issue with Kakashi-san and Kaa-san. It was only after months of discussion had he come to the decision he did. But now he had to pass another test before going on the journey he wanted to go. But the journey was not what caused Itachi to freeze up at the thought, but what would happen once he got on that journey._

 _The room was silent for a while as their father slowly contemplated the issue. Mother was sitting next to him and Itachi was sitting on the neutral ground: to the side and at the centre. Sasuke sat quietly, not at all looking bothered to be caught in this predicament with their father. His face betrayed no amount of the inner storm he had going on behind those eyes. Fugaku cleared his throat and the attention was again back on him._

" _Let me get this straight. You want to drop out of University, especially after all the studying you've done and all the trouble you took to get into one of the most prestigious Universities in the country? For Kami-sama's sake Sasuke, you got into it at the first attempt while it takes the others at least two tries to get into it. You even had one of the highest scores out there and you do this? What made you take this decision Sasuke? Why are you doing this?"_

" _Are you seriously asking me why? Okay. I'm doing this because I don't want to see any of you for a while after all that's happened in the last couple of years. I need time!"_

" _Sasuke, sending you to Orochimaru was not something I wanted to do. You decided to get involved in dr-"_

" _Do you even have any idea of what you're talking about? Itachi and Shisui themselves experimented a little and you said nothing at that time. Experimenting is something-"_

" _Experimenting is something, I agree, that every child does. But you were not experi-"_

" _How do you even know that? Did you at least try to talk to me? No, you, Kakashi and my beloved older brother, there, gave me a beat-down and you still think I'd do it again? Did you still think I'd let myself get a-"_

" _Yes, you would. Orochimaru did the right thing by taking you away for the year."_

" _No. Orochimaru is, actually, a sadistic pedophile who would enjoy watching a child suff-"_

 _SMACK._

 _The sound of the slap rang across the room and the rest of them watched wide eyed as Sasuke gave a full length Uchiha glare at the man sitting in front of him._

" _Fugaku, let Sasuke go. He thinks it's necessary, so let him go."_

 _Madara Uchiha spoke quietly as he entered the room startling everyone._

" _But Tou-sa-," Fugaku started to say_

" _I already gave him permission to go as he wished. From now on, Sasuke is my responsibility. I'm taking him off your hands as the head of the Family," Madara said looking every bit the cold bastard he is known to be._

 _Father knew not to interfere after that, after all Madara Uchiha was a scary man who could make grown Uchiha men cry but that was a story for another time and Father was in no mood to irritate Grandfather. Even he knew not to do those things._

Sasuke left soon after that, soon being three days. What everyone thought was that Sasuke would be back within the year, but that didn't happen. Two years, three, four and now eight years later Sasuke was back in the city and it was because he'd been forced to stay, forced to stay by two people in his life that Sasuke would never say no to. Itachi sighed and looked around to see if they were getting closer to the Uchiha manor.

His primary concern was always his brother, Sasuke. He pondered over the past which seemed like ages ago…..

 _After the betrayal of the he-who-must-not-be-named it was Sasuke who had to deal with the chaos back at home. Shisui had been overseas and Itachi had moved for University. It was Sasuke- who was fourteen at that time- who watched their Mother and Father get into arguments; it was him who dealt with his own feeling of betrayal. Sure Itachi and Shisui called everyday to see how they were doing, but it was Sasuke who bore the brunt._

 _And his brother had been so quiet when Itachi went home to see them for Christmas. The Christmas dinner was usually a loud affair in the Uchiha Manor with every one of their relatives coming to see them. But that night dinner had been a very quiet affair; the only people present were the immediate family and their Grandfather. It was another thing to see his brother that broody which set a heavy weight on Itachi's chest. The pain he'd seen in his brother's eyes that night had been a huge blow to his already damaged pride( the older brothers' had always prided themselves to keep the youngest safe out of harms' way. )_

 _That night Sasuke quietly crawled into Itachi's room and into his bed. Itachi had been pondering the changes in everyone; his mother's smile no longer reached her eyes, his father's face permanently etched into a glare, the most painful of all the silence of his little brother. His brother, although quiet before, was never silent. He'd stand up for what he believed and he always loved talking to Itachi and Shisui and ….but now his brother barely talked, he never stayed in the same room as his Father, wouldn't look his Mother in the eye._

 _That night as Sasuke slowly curled into Itachi's bed, crying silently._

" _Sasuke!" Itachi sat up to watch his brother and the sight nearly tore him apart from the inside. Sure he loved watching his brother flounder and he loved dragging indignant scowls from Sasuke's face but this… he never liked seeing Sasuke like this. Sure they'd called him 'Crybaby' as a child, but this wasn't the same. It was soul wrenching for Itachi. This was the kind of expression that made Itachi's blood boil and want to make the person behind the expression disappear off the face of the planet. Shisui too entered the room and stared wordlessly at Sasuke's shaking curled up form on the bed._

 _It was then gravity of Obito's betrayal really hit him and he remembered taking a slow deep breath and gently coaxing his brother to sit up and "Talk."_

 _That was all it took for Sasuke to completely unravel. His sentences barely making_

" _Mama and Father loud fighting.. Things break and … bad days at school….Kakashi looked torn and.. and "._

 _Sasuke had descended into a storm hysterical sobs. Everything kicked into place for Itachi and he watched as Shisui gently pull the youngest into his chest calmly whispering things to him; things were definitely far far worse than he'd first imagined._

 _Sasuke had actually calmed quicker than Itachi thought he would. Itachi and Shisui watched as Sasuke pulled away from Shisui and wiped his face; the catharsis over for now._

" _I'm sorry," he'd said quietly. It broke the two older siblings again._

" _Explain, Sasuke. What exactly has been happening around here?"_

 _And explain Sasuke did; he told about how badly their parents were coping, how their arguments always end with them breaking a piece of furniture, how they'd taken to sleeping in different rooms, how he'd feared a divorce, how school had been reacting to the thought of Sasuke's oldest brother being a traitor to the country, how his own perfect grades had been slipping much to the ire of their perfectionist father, how Kakashi had quit the Interpol and joined as a teacher, how tired and worn out Kakashi had been when he'd seen him at school, how Grandfather was the only who offered him some kind of peace, everything and a lot more. They hadn't interrupted him even as Sasuke angrily wiped at his tears and continued. Another day and another situation Itachi would have smiled at the sight; the sight of his little trying to be strong, not now. Now Sasuke had been strong and now it was Itachi's turn to take care of the family affairs._

 _The confession drained a lot of his little brother. He'd fallen asleep quickly curling Itachi's from. But Sasuke had been brave enough to hold the fort down in the older ones' absence and it had taken quite the toll on him- because people should trust Itachi when he says this there was no one in the whole world who could stand an Uchiha's anger especially not two of them at the same time._

He took a few days off college, his grades be damned, much to his father's anger, but Itachi hadn't budged. Once he saw his Father and Mother get into another yelling match- seriously Mikoto raising her voice meant the end of the world, and he could completely understand Sasuke now. But it wasn't the world that was ending it was the family. He'd calmly walked into the room and had some words with both of them about how their continual verbal spats were affecting Sasuke. The reactions were almost instantaneous. They'd calmed down and together all three of them discussed their issues and soon that was the end of the fighting. A well timed visit to Sasuke in his gym hour had been enough to scare any potential bullies off Sasuke's back- not that anyone would dare bully Sasuke, because his little brother's temper was nothing to be trifled with and everyone knew that.

He and Shisui had then carefully showed him a way to let out his pent up aggression in productive way. And soon Sasuke was winning tournaments in martial arts competitions.

Everything had been going well until Sasuke did some growing and started experimenting a little with weed. Sure it wasn't a huge issue because Itachi knew Sasuke hated the effect of the drug. His little brother liked to be in control of his senses that was what they'd been teaching him for years. This out of control feeling had left a sour taste which only worsened when Fugaku, Kakashi and Itachi tried to explain the side effects of drugs with a lesson in martial arts at a time when Sasuke had been completely stoned.

But their father…. The man lost his complete faith he had in his children. He no longer trusted Sasuke or Itachi, and Itachi being older had gotten away quite easily; Sasuke hadn't been so lucky. This lack of trust was what pressurized Sasuke to graduate high school early and sent away to Orochimaru. That Snake….

Itachi had lost it when he heard what his Father had done. He'd heard rumors about Orochimaru's less than legal way of treating. He'd heard accounts first hand from the victims at the University he was at; and to think his brother had been sent there? There was no forgetting and forgiving something like that. That infamous outburst was still feared and talked about by many in his family. When Sasuke did come back after a year's stay there, he'd been a shell of his former self. He quietly prepared for University exams scoring top marks and getting into the top medical university in Japan. But after a year of college, Sasuke had come up with a different goal to achieve. He'd trained hard to achieve the necessary skills and disappeared into the world around Itachi and only appeared once a year. The changes he'd seen his were more disturbing than one would think. The sweet, gentle and caring child was nowhere to be seen. All that was left, was a hardened core, insulting sarcasm and cynicism the likes of which Itachi had never seen before.

He snapped out of his thoughts when his lovely wife shook him gently telling him they'd arrived. Itchi had spent more than an hour lost in his thoughts. He looked up at her apology clear in his eyes but she merely smiled at him, with Naruto and Kakashi standing patiently right behind her. He could see the almost contemplative look on Naruto's face and unconsciously came to a conclusion. It had been right for Mikoto and Itachi to force Sasuke to stay, maybe with Naruto's general warm disposition, maybe, just maybe they'd get a glimpse of the old Sasuke again. Itachi shook his head and followed the others into the house.

At the manor, they saw Sasuke's bike parked to the side and noted that Sasuke was already there. Once inside they were taking their shoes off when they were greeted by Naruto's parents Minato and Kushina. And the matriarch of the household was nowhere to be seen and Shisui, his beloved older cousin, was entertaining the guests. What followed next was the exchange of pleasantries, loud ones which contained Naruto almost yelling poor Minato-san's ear off. A minute later and everything was quiet once again. It was in the midst of the chaos that Fugaku and Madara came in, Madara being followed by his assistant Konan and bodyguard Nagato.

"So where is Sasuke? More importantly where is my wife?" Fugaku asked as soon as he was able to get a word in, looking almost at ease with their extended family's loud rambunctious ways.

"Sasuke dragged Mikoto off to the kitchen, said something about being hungry and needing something to eat. Shisui-kun, here though, came soon after they went and kept us company, Fugaku," Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mother replied.

Kushina Uzumaki is the only woman in the world who could get away with call Itachi's father by his name, other than Mikoto of course.

Sakura in the mean time had our son in a tight hug as she took little Tobi-kun from Minato and got there to Itachi-making him smile with the way the child squealed as she tickled him. This was just another gathering at the manor but there was a huge difference here that day and that was Sasuke, who hadn't been home in nearly three years.

Madara Uchiha , Itachi's grandfather cleared his throat and everyone fell silent.

! #$%^^%$# !

Things in the Uchiha household were not normal, there was a charged atmosphere. After removing our shoes and noticing the bastard's shoes were there we went in to find my parents and Shisui Uchiha sitting in the living room. Mikoto and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen. But I had other things to focus on now, things like a over protective mother who loved her children to death kind of things.

I could only seriously hope Sakura would keep her mouth shut but there was no time for that because, INCOMING.

"Naru-chan, oh I missed you baby! You don't even call me anymore!" my belove mother Uzumaki Kushina cried out latching on to my arm with a grip that said ' _I never want to let you go! My sweet little baby'._

"Now you're being dramatic Mom, I just called you last night," I told her, as I gently pull my arm away from her grip.

"Naru-chan! I thought you loved me, Minato look our child doesn't love me anymore. Look!" she said as she walked back to my father dragging me along the way, the most laid-back old man you could ever hope of meeting. Thankfully he was the sane one in our family.

"Now, now Kushina, stop dragging Naruto-kun around. He's not a child anymore," my father said with an eye crinkling grin on his face and then he added, "Yo, Kakashi, Sakura-chan, Itachi-kun. Here, Tobi-kun, say hi to Mama."

"Mama, Papa," little Tobi-kun squealed. Sakura immediately headed for him and started tickling him to hear more giggles and squeals from his mouth while Itachi watched on with a small smile on his face. Meanwhile, Shisui was merely watching us all with amusement in his eyes at our daily antics.

"Hey there, Minato-san," Kakasi said, "Kushina-sama."

From there on the excitement quieted and Fugaku-san- I seriously had no idea when he and Madara-san entered the room with Nagato-san and Konan-san- asked, "Where is Sasuke? More importantly where is my wife?"

"Sasuke dragged Mikoto off to the kitchen, said something about being hungery and needing something to eat. Shisui-kun, here though, came soon after they went and kept us company, Fugaku."

So he was in the kitchen, huh? Before I could process further, Madara-sama cleared his throat. As expected everyone in the room turned to look at him, but the old man Madara though had his fixed on me.

Madara Uchiha was a person who could scare away any damn person and it would never be a blow to my pride if I said was scared of him now, would it?

"Naruto-kun," he saisd, in his ever serious, gruff voice, "would you mind fetching Sasu-kun and Mikoto-chan from the kitchen for me?"

"No! I'll go right away," I said, already making my way to the door before he finished his sentence walking past everyone.

In the hallway I gave a sigh of relief and slowly made my way to where I know the kitchen to be. As I reached the kitchen I heard the hushed voices of Mikoto and Sasuke from inside, something about, _"I'm so sorry Sasu-kun, we shouldn't have forced you into this job. But I just wanted you to be around for a while."_

" _I understand, Mother. I really do. You were all worried about me."_

" _We were."_

"Um.. Sorry to interrupt you guys, but Madara-sama wants to see you and is waiting in the living room," I said, entering the kitchen.

"Ah, Naruto-kun, you're all back, huh. We're coming in a second. Naruto-kun, why don't you help yourself to this rice-cake in the meantime? I just made them," Mikoto said as she gave me one of those.

"There's no need for that Mikoto-san," I said but she insisted again and I knew I had to stop resisting lest I make her angry. One thing I learnt in all my twenty seven years of my life: Never make a woman angry especially a Mom.

I then looked around the kitchen and found Sasuke sitting on the counter next to the stove staring at me. He was sitting there with his legs dangling off the floor and the expression on his face told me I'd interrupted a very important conversation. Talk about right place wrong time. I gulped when I saw Sasuke's stare become withering in my direction. I looked away and focused on what Mikoto seemed to be doing. I slowly took a bite of that rice cake and noted that it wasn't as sweet as it should be and was more crispy than sweet. But you're never gonna hear me complain about it.

"Hey, Sasuke," I started as I looked at him from the corner of my eye, "you better be ready to stay an hour after school. Konohamaru just scored a B+ at the test a few days ago. With a little bit more time to prepare he'll get an A in the next test this week."

The bastard, he was, merely stared back at me for a few seconds before he answered, "I'm only going to teach him if he gets an A+, not a measly A. I'm busy as it is."

I got mad at that moment of time. I wanted to punch him right in front of Mikoto. I mean seriously Konohamaru was doing all he could to get a better score in this short a time and here this bastard was not acknowledging it at all? All that hard work! I'd been getting to school extra early just to help Konohamaru give a little bit of math tutoring. The kid was not termed a genius for nothing. He'd just needed a little bit of instruction… no, no, no. all the kid needed was a bit of a push to learn his hated subject which the bastard was able to provide.

"What kind of a teacher are you, huh?! The kid is trying as hard as he can, cut him some slack already!" I yelled, "And what is it that you're even doing with Natsumi-chan? Why are you making her stay after school?"

Mikoto Uchiha was now staring at the both of us. She had an unreadable expression on her face just as her son did. I was gonna comment on it too, if the perfectionist bastard hadn't opened his mouth again before closing it.

I watched him close his eyes against some emotion he didn't want me to see. He took a deep breath as if it were the only thing that was gonna stop him from lashing out.

"What I do with Saito is none of your business-"

"She's my student too, you dumbass!"

"- and you will stay as far away from me as possible otherwise you're gonna know the exact reason why Kakashi really appreciates my sadistic side. And don't you dare try and teach me how to do my job not when you idiots are so goddamned oblivious as to what's going on in your students' lives."

" _Sasuke,"_ I heard Mikoto hiss. In all the time I've known Mikoto I've nevr heard Mikoto talk like that and it only reinforced a statement in the corner of my mind, never piss a Mom. But the majority portion of my mind was working on understanding Sasuke's statement.

I felt a chill that seemed to cover me up entirely making the hair on the back of my neck rise. I didn't understand the reason why I felt so…. afraid?...no that wasn't it! I wasn't sacred of the bastard. I just saw something in the hard planes of his face that told me he would most certainly do as he told me he would. He glared at me one more time before leaving me there staring at his back.

What was that about being oblivious to my students' life? What did he mean? I'd always considered myself as a teacher who could connect to my students. And according to the poll they put up I was one of the most favored teachers at school, but what did Sasuke mean about us all being 'oblivious idiots'?

"Naruto-kun."

! #$%^^%$# !

Shizune knew what she was now doing was against protocol, but fuck it she thought. The city was getting bloody- in the figurative sense of course- again after all these years and there was nothing she as an officer could do. Her superior was being a stubborn woman, the kind that didn't know when to stop and even Shizune the ever patient person was getting tired of it.

There were fourteen unsolved murders- if you could call them murders, that is. Fourteen members of the Yakuza were found dead in various locations of the city. There was never any kind of blood on the crime scene. In fact there was no blood involved, just the brutal assaults to the body that would leave anyone dead. All fourteen members had their necks broken. The killers had been quick and efficient and as always had left nothing behind.

She was currently at the crime scene, kneeling in front of a corpse, her gloved hands pushing and prodding. There was no press around which was a mixed blessing. Mixed because they didn't have to deal with the incessant grumbles from the press about ' _how long are you going to let these deaths continue?', 'do we have a suspect?'_ , so on and so forth. This was also a curse because the bodies were always discovered at places where there would be no civilians or press around and at times no one but police moved which meant the killers were very experienced and knew what they were doing. Shizune wasn't stupid, she knew the places they found the bodies were not the exact crime scenes either.

But she doubted she or the members in the Police Force with her would be able to find anything. That was just how intelligent the killers seemed to be.

The deaths had slightly different details each time. The body of a person can tell you a lot of details about the killer. That was exactly how they came to find out about multiple killers. Their killers were usually used only mucle power. They never used guns and they always, always stayed safe and away from the crowded areas of town. There was never a print left behind, never even a single hair was left behind.

What was even more frustrating- if you could actually find one- was the silence of her superior, Tsunade Senju. The woman asked everyone on the case to keep a tight lid on it and that no one other than assigned members were to know about the case. What was all the more frustrating was that Tsunade wasn't even batting an eye at all the deaths. She merely told them all to keep it shut.

But Shizune wasn't going to keep it shut anymore, not when there was a strong possibility that there was a new rival gang on the streets that was taking out potential threats.

"Ma'am," she heard a new recruit say. She noticed everyone staring at her, silently awaiting her orders.

"Get the bodies down to the morgue and have the examiners look over. After that we wait for further orders from Tsunade-sama," she hollered for everyone to hear.

But that wasn't she was planning for herself though. She was now going to talk to the one person who was capable of talking some sense into her superior. As she walked down to her car, she took her phone out and called the said person.

! #$%^^%$# !

I snapped out of my numbness when I heard the soft voice of the Uchiha matriarch say quietly. I looked at her to see staring at me. I quickly fixed her a smile albeit a strained one. She smiled back slightly appreciating the effort I was putting.

"Naruto-kun. You and Sasuke are now a part of each others' lives now, right?"

I nod, tilting my head slightly to understand she was trying to tell me.

"So I want you to understand that Sasuke sees the world a lot differently from the rest of us do. It's because of certain things in the past but …."

"What are you trying to tell me Mikoto-san?" I ask now completely curious as to where she was taking the conversation. Was she finally going to help me unravel the stoic mysterious Uchiha?

"In the future, I want you to count to ten before you try and accuse him of not being good at something. In fact don't talk down to him at all if you can help it, Naruto-kun. Sasuke works differently; he's a lot more unorthodox in his methods because of all the travelling he's done but his methods do have the desired results. What I'm trying to tell you is that Sasuke does everything for a reason. He doesn't waste his time; if he does something it will be for a valuable cause," she said, looking away, staring at the window.

The atmosphere in the room has gotten pensive for reasons unknown to me, maybe I'd offended her by insulting her son? Maybe…

"Let's go, Fugaku must be wondering where we are by now," she said a bright smile lighting her face, the previous disagreement forgotten

With a nod I follow her out of the kitchen and into the living room where the others were located. Unlike before I come in just the right time to the right place because Shisui-san was currently introduced the youngest Uchiha to Sasuke.

"Crybaby 2 meet your predecessor Crybaby 1," I hear him say and I see Itachi, Madara and even Fugaku chuckle at the intro.

 _Crybaby?_

"I no crybaby!" Tobi yelled with all the righteous indignation of a toddler towards his uncle who always seemed to poke fun at him. In fact of all the older Uchihas, Shisui and Itachi had once upon a time been quite infamous for their harmless torture at a baby Sasuke from what Mikoto's told me. Originally there was another name added to the list of Sasuke's torturers but that name was now taboo in the Uchiha household.

Mikoto was openly giggling at that nickname causing Sasuke to spin around and watch his mother laugh looking sourly at the supposed joke. He sighs exasperated before reaching over to smack Shisui on the back of his head and taking Tobi-kun into his arms.

Shisui for his part rubs the back of his head before muttering something about annoying baby cousins, still hormonal teenaged brats before walking away from Sasuke and the others laugh that much harder Sasuke simply flips him the bird behind the baby's back. And it is now that I notice that Sakura-chan is nowhere to be seen. She must have gotten another call from the PD, I think before focusing my attention on the Tobi again.

It was surprising to see Sasuke holding the toddler in his arms; the familiarity in the gesture surprising me. It was almost as if he's spent years and years of his life holding children and toddlers. Sasuke keeps his gaze on the child and says to Shisui in quiet tone, "One more insult aimed at me, Shisui, I'll tell Hana exactly what happened in that bachelor's party six years ago."

That one statement made Itachi laugh out loud. In fact it was so surprising to watch Itachi-the-stoic-ruthless-lawyer-Uchiha laugh like that. I watched Mom whip out her smart-phone to catch it all on tape to show it to Sakura-chan later or just use it foe blackmail material later. She was very good at whipping out her phone and getting candid shots at a moment's notice. I sigh at the predictability of my mother's thoughts. Itachi's laughter was still echoing in the room with Mikoto's and Madara's, and it was a sight to behold.

There was an unspoken rule in the Uzumaki household a rule that was followed in all the households actually: never let your lady get mad at you. Even Fugaku stayed quiet at the face of Mikoto's temper.

If it happened to stoic men like Fugaku then a free-spirited Shisui would never stand a chance against a fiery Hana Inuzuka. It was impossible. As it is I notice Shisui getting pale at the mention of Hana and the bachelor's party. Whatever happened that day seemed to high hold leverage against the esteemed and very intelligent CFO of the Uchiha Corps.

"Sasu-chan!" Shisui wailed, "you pwomised."

He finished with the impersonation of a child. I knew at that moment Shisui was digging his own grave.

"You are not helping your case by calling him that Shisui. Not helping at all!" Itachi said looking oddly amused. "And is that Sasuke's childhood voice you're impersonating?"

"Itachi! You traitor! You are supposed to be on my side, you jerk! What happened to that Torturing Baby Brother Treaty we had between us, huh?" he griped, "and how do you even know about that night?"

"Any treaty will only be valid after continual renewal, even you know that Shisui. Besides that's my son you're trying to tease," Itachi answered smoothly with all the grace of a lawyer.

"I have my ways Shisui, stop being so loud now. I'm trying to play with my nephew and you are distracting me," Sasuke said nuzzling the child's nose with his.

And just like that the Uchiha household had more life in it than I've ever seen. In fact the cold, formal family that was the Uchiha, seemed to be a having normal happy moments, cheerful moments like these and it was all because of the arrival of Sasuke.

! #$%^^%$# !

Happiness, it seemed, was not something the Uchiha's were supposed to have. Because after playing the child for a mere half-hour Sasuke gave the child back to Itachi. There was not a single ounce of tenderness in his gaze that was present while playing with the child; it was almost as if he were glad to pass the child off to Itachi. Kakshi-sensei had muttered something about the child looking too much like 'you-know-who'.

After that everything went to hell. I saw that Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke were actually trying to stay as far away from Fugaku as possible. I was not the only one to notice this. Mom had a frown on her face as she glanced at all the faces around her. Mikoto was not even trying to smooth things over between her husband and her children. It was almost as if she was used to it; this dysfunctional behavior.

Fugaku and Dad were discussing business in the far corner of the room while Madara just listened to their conversation not bothering to add any input. Mikoto and Mom were sitting on the other side of the room chatting about something while I sat with Kaka-sensei, Itachi and Shisui quietly spending our time with the chattering two-year old.

It was like this that I got myself lost in thought. Time continued to pass around me. There were other things that I started to notice about the family hosting us. Up until this moment in time neither Sasuke nor Fugaku had said a word to each other. They were constantly shying away from one another; trying to keep out of each other's way. It was almost painful to watch Mikoto's face when they would turn away from one another.

As I observed Sasuke's relationship with his mother seemed extremely deep. There were times when Mikoto would open her mouth to ask Sasuke to do something but Sasuke would have already completed the job for her. Like the time she wanted Sasuke to check on the Tami-chan, their cat. She is a furry lean 14 year old cat. According to Mikoto older cats often need help as some of them are prone to arthritis and can't get to their favorite places. The smile that Mikoto gave him when he got back was heartwarming to watch especially when the cold stoic Sasuke smiled softly at her.

Sasuke's relationship with his grandfather was something to marvel about. I mean I've never the old man Madara would actually want to spend time with sometime with the others. He barely came to these gathering s these days. But with Sasuke the old man not only talked to him openly but he would also smile at him and chuckle at his slightly sarcastic answers. Slightly because Sasuke never answers any question without at least a little sarcasm slipping out. Also there seemed to be slight undercurrent of something else in Madara's tone when he spoke to Sasuke; there was strange wistfulness, a strange tenderness he hadn't heard before. It was there in Sasuke's tone too.

Shisui however was easy to figure. The tall CEO of the Uchiha Corp was the most easy-going person in the entire Uchiha family. He was calm, had a witty sense of humor and most of all never got tired of life as a whole. Sasuke's relationship had a similar notion with Shisui. The harmless banter I heard between them showed they were very close. Shisui immediately asked Sasuke to drinks at the bar next Monday. Sasuke said something about him staying away from alcohol but Shisui told him to be the designated driver. It was apparent to me that Sasuke was never out of the loop with either Shisui or Itachi and both of them would do anything to do to bring him back into the loop.

However it is the relationship with his father that was very abnormal.

 _Sasuke was standing at the open window staring at the garden with a blank look in his eyes. He looked saddened by something. Which I couldn't for the life of me understand anyway, I mean what can be saddening for you when visit your parents whom you haven't visited in three long years?_

 _We all freeze slightly when we smell cigarette smoke in the air. The culprit is Sasuke because no one in this has ever smoked once Tobi-kun was born. I heard Shisui had an extremely bad smoking habit, but one word about how it was harmful for Tobi's health seemed to make him stop smoking entirely. I was about to open my mouth to say something when Fugaku beat me to it._

" _Boy! We have children in the house, now. So stop smoking!"_

 _Fugaku's voice was unnaturally hard even for him- his eyes holding a type of distaste or was that guilt?-that shouldn't be there when one was looking at his children._

" _Fugaku," I heard Mikoto hiss._

 _I expected Sasuke to make some kind of sarcastic comment about it but he just stood there with that blank expression._

 _Then it happened almost in slow motion. Sasuke's hand, the one which held the cigarette, slowly made his way to his other one. For a moment it looked like Sasuke was about of snuff the burning cigarette right into his other hand when Shisui- bless the man's speed- brought an ash-tray and Itachi plucked the cigarette out of Sasuke's hand and deposited right into the ash tray._

 _There was collective breath of relief showing in everyone. Sasuke too snapped out of whatever trance he was in and spoke in a quiet tone, "Grandfather, there are things I need to talk to you about. Is now a good time?"_

 _Sasuke looked pale looking at least a decade older than he was._

 _To that question Madara nodded and they left together leaving heavy tension in the room. Sasuke still hadn't said a word to Fugaku._

As mysterious as that sounded that was the end of the awkward moment. Sasuke Uchiha was capable of handling any awkward situation you throw at him, believe it.

The rest of us continued with our stay just as we usually did until Sakura came back that is. Sakura, my sweet beloved sister looked like she wanted kill someone the second she'd arrived muttering something about stupid old hags, bureaucratic politicians and what not. It was a good thing Tobi-kun was there to calm her down. If it weren't for him, Itachi and Mikoto Sakura would never be able to get out of the anger that would consume her.

After a while- while being the amount of time it took for her to calm down- she told us how Tsunade had been keeping secrets from her about the rise of a possible street thug group. Apparently these people had been killing off the Yakuza members left and right for the past week and half, and Tsunade hadn't mentioned a word to her.

I had to admit that it wasn't ever like Tsunade to keep something like this under wraps. I caught my Mom and Dad glance at each, and together they looked at Mikoto and Itachi. Kakashi didn't look worried, so I figured I had no reason to worry either, no matter if anyone else did.

It was almost mysterious in some ways, but I was probably over thinking this anyway. Madara and Sasuke stayed away from the rest of us until lunch, a fact that pleased Sakura a lot. I'll never understand why Sakura-chan hates Sasuke so much, but one of these days I'll find out about that too.

! #$%^^%$# !

Mikoto Uchiha was angry; there was no other way to say that.

She hadn't seen her son for nearly three whole years and already Fugaku was trying to drive him away with his sarcastic attitude. It was good thing they were among family; this day was surely going to be the worst reunion. She could already feel it happening. Hopefully Itachi, Shisui, Madara and Mikoto, herself should be able to keep the situation under control. Hopefully.

It was quite well-known in the family that Sasuke and Fugaku never saw eye-to-eye in anything. Fugaku the proud father he is had high expectations for Sasuke. Expectations Sasuke didn't bother fulfilling. Not when he believed he had other important things to do. In fact Sasuke wouldn't even be there at that moment if it weren't for Mikoto's and Itachi's insistence that he stay in the city for a while and help out.

Things were getting difficult. The situation was growing to be more dangerous-

" _Boy! We have children in the house, now. So stop smoking! Have you gone mad?"_

The tone with which her husband spoke did nothing to ease her mind. And the subsequent action of Sasuke's: who on God's green earth would simply snuff a cigarette on their arms?

What bothered Mikoto the most was the blankness in Sasuke's eyes. Over the years she'd grown accustomed to see the darkness in his eyes. It had grown substantially and it was their fault. No, it was her fault really. But Sasuke would never let her say that always arguing that the choices he made were his and his alone. It all started eleven years ago. To her credit, Mikoto knew Sasuke did everything he could to stay in the shadows. He stayed away from everyone making sure they didn't have to deal with his sadness, his misery, his grief and made sure to keep her together in the face of the worst betrayal.

In the process he'd experimented a little and Fugaku found out. To say matters went straight to hell would be an understatement of the century. Because of his simple choice to experiment a little with marijuana, Fugaku forced him to graduate early and sent him to a place where no child should be sent. In Fugaku's defense, he only wanted to make Sasuke concentrate a little more on daily life; he didn't want Sasuke on a destructive path. And Mikoto herself was simply too overcome with grief to even try and help Sasuke out of the predicament he'd found himself him.

Itachi's anger at what Fugaku had done was palpable. In fact she had never seen the gentlest of all her children look so feral and mad with rage before. Madara, himself had been away during that time. Then when Sasuke came back from that place, she knew what kind of a grave mistake she'd let Fugaku make. Whatever light that was left in Sasuke's eyes, was gone. It was a difficult sight to see. She felt like she lost Sasuke too.

When Sasuke made the decision to drop out of University to pursue a career in such a dangerous field, she'd known. There was no way Sasuke would've listened to anyone at that point, and all she and Itachi could do- knowing what Sasuke wanted to do- was support him and hope he'd come back home and in one piece.

Presently Naruto's voice distracted Mikoto from her reminiscing and made concentrate enough on eating. Everyone around the table seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. Naruto the child who was always had the ability of seeing the best in everyone had become a part of their life when Kushina thought it was finally time to move to Minato's home country. The child, no man, next to her is loud, loving person who was loyal to a fault.

The conversation he had with Sasuke in the kitchen told her a multitude of things. Naruto was intimidated by Sasuke, Sasuke hated Naruto's naiveté and oblivious nature, and Naruto hated her son's guts.

That relationship was not going the way they'd planned it, nope. They should hope for the better because-

"Sasuke, I want you to come to the Board meeting next Friday."

Her husband authoritative voice cut through her thoughts and _he_ should know of all people that that tone was not going to sit well with Sasuke and she bit back a sigh.

Sasuke stared at Fugaku quietly, blankly before nodding. He didn't put up a fight. Now that was new. Her son seemed to be eating as quickly as he could to get out of their home. Home is where the heart lies sure but for Sasuke the farther from home he is the better mood he'd be in.

The lunch they were having wasn't like the ones they'd had before in Sasuke's absence. Everyone in her family was wary of Sasuke's moods; in fact she was sure she'd seen the same blankness in Sasuke's eyes before. It broke her heart to see it again as he was only ever like that when something extremely bad happened. What though, she may never know, because Sasuke'd started guarding his secrets quite viciously. The new additions to the family-Kushina, Minato, Naruto and Sakura- now had the front row seats to the unfurling of clusterfuck that her family was. Itachi and Shisui- who'd grown even more over protective of Sasuke in the said boy's absence- had stiffened the second they'd heard Sasuke's name come from Fugaku's voice. The Uzumaki-Namikaze family was friends who knew everything so there wasn't much regret there.

Unlike Sasuke, those two still hadn't forgiven Fugaku for sending Sasuke away. Sasuke however was mad at Fugaku for other reasons. He'd wanted Fugaku to admit to his mistake or at least talk to Sasuke about it, but Fugaku's pride and guilt never allowed that. Kakashi was quiet for the most part of the lunch, just observing the people at the table like Mikoto. He'd get in a word or two in Naruto's talk but that was it. Now Kakashi was staring at the two just like the rest of them.

"I wanted an answer boy. Not a nod, an actual complete statement, rather than a monosyllable."

"Fine, Father. I'll go," Sasuke swallowed the food before saying quietly and continuing to eat.

"I want you to go meet the Yamanka's, the Nara's, the Akimichi's, the Senju's and the other clans tomorrow. And take Naruto with you."

Naruto's eyes grew wide with surprise and everyone winced when the loud blonde stumbles and stuttered through a few sentences. Inwardly though, most of the people _in the know_ couldn't have asked for a better situation for both the boys to get to know each other.

An "Okay," was Sasuke's only answer. An answer that stunned the Uchihas including Fugaku. This opened the floor for Minato to pose questions for Sasuke.

"Sasuke, what were planning to do before deciding to travel the world? I mean what degree were you pursuing?"

"I wanted to be a military doctor, work there for a while and go join in on the doctors without borders program," he answered truthfully and a little wistfully. "I don't have that goal anymore."

To say the people around the table were surprised was an understatement. Who would have thought? And she saw blatant surprise in Naruto's face and Sakura's.

There it was the familiar blankness in Sasuke's eyes.

She saw Kushina gently nudge her husband, who wanted to ask more questions. The nudge stopped him however and Mikoto was once again grateful for Kushina's perceptiveness when it came to people.

"Sasuke," Madara said, bringing everyone's attention to him, "I'm due to meet Hashirama for our weekly shogi game. You're coming with me."

"Yes, Grandfather. I'll wait in the car."

He thanked me for the food, excused himself giving us a polite bow. He gave Shisui the keys to the contraption they call a motorcycle and left the room.

Mikoto could still not believe that Sasuke-her Sasuke, the sarcastic, cynical man he'd grown up to be- hadn't shown any of his trademark sarcasm towards Fugaku. This only meant to show how instable Sasuke'd gotten.

But instability was not the issue here. The real issue however was Sakura's- her beloved daughter-in-law's soon to be involvement in the case of the Yakuza's deaths. She had been especially sick when she saw how angery Sakura was at Tsunade. Tsunade had promised to keep Sakura out of the loop for her own safety but now her daughter-in-law was determined to get involved anyway. The situation was getting more and more dangerous and she could only hope everything would turn out to be fine in the end and Sakura's marriage to her son wouldn't be in shambles.

 **Also how do you like portrayal of a young fourteen year old Sasuke? Was he OOC? Was Itachi OOC?**

 **Also what is this thing 'in the loop' that Mikoto spoke about? Why are the deaths of Yakuza making Mikoto so anxious?**

 **Read and find out in the next chapter. Give me some positive comments!**


	5. Chapter 5: The Fire Accident(?)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, sigh…..**

 **Anyway when I went back and read the last chapter I felt Sasuke was a little OOC (a lot). I mean Sasuke getting hysterical was something that would not happen in any timeline of phase… hell Sasuke is someone who makes people cry instead of the other way around. So I went and changed it a bit…..**

 **Onto the next chapter**

 **Chapter 5: Fire Accident (?)**

It's been nearly three hours since that awkward lunch with the Uchihas. After Sasuke left, things got very awkward for a few minutes before Shisui cracked the tension in the room with his ever present crooked smile and a "My baby cousin still as uptight as ever."

Though I could see the tightness in their eyes when the words were spoken, they easily let the subject change after that.

That evening Sakura and I went to the grocery so that Sakura could enforce the-one week-no-ramen rule in my life. Why do I even listen to her? Oh, because my Mother is far scarier than a week without ramen. This was going to be the longest week in my whole fucking life. Anyway I'll get to that later.

Once at the store, Sakura immediately picked up a cart and started throwing all kinds of healthy foods in it much to my despair. "Sakura-chan, I don't need that, no that either."

And how do you think she responded to my complaints? She ignored them, of course. We were moving onto the meat section when I heard a familiar sweet voice and low baritones of a male voice that _sounded very_ familiar. A few more steps into the section and….

Guess who we ran into in the grocery store? You got it! We ran into Uchiha-the-grumpy-Sasuke grocery shopping with the sweetest goddess on earth, Hinata. Of all the grocery stores in the city why did they have to visit this one?

It was a surprise to see them both arguing over the healthier type of meat and it was quite entertaining to watch if not for my fuming sister next to me.

Hinata quickly put a huge smile on her face the second she saw us and nodded to Sasuke in our direction. It was now that it hit me how beautiful the Uchiha really was standing there next to Hinata. The dark jeans and black shirt were form fitting showing off the toned body of the younger Uchiha brother. They were both such good looking people, it was quite unfair actually. Hinata and Sasuke walked to the place we were standing-in the middle of the store- and Hinata soon got into a conversation with Sakura, with Sasuke merely glaring into the corner of the store. Sasuke merely moved behind us all and added whatever food he thought looked good or should I say 'healthy'.

"Sakura-chan, it's so nice to see you! Is Tobi-kun with Itachi-san?" I watched as my sister hid the displeasure of meeting Sasuke with a quick smile and respond to Hinata's questions.

From there on the conversation between the women went on and on about baby rearing, baby products, the latest baby fashion and so on that made my head spin just trying to follow it, I mean how can women talk so much and still process everything going on around them?! So I decided to just ignore their conversation and focus on something else; in my case it was the person standing next to me.

When I looked into his basket, the total health aspect of each and every single item in there almost made me nauseous. Ugh…..I can't even think of how much of a health freak the guy really is.

But apart from that, the only time he said anything was when we stopped in front of the tomatoes in the produce section. Hinata had actually stopped the conversation with Sakura just to watch. The sight was quite … _unbelievable….._ if you ask me. There was look of pure bliss on his face and the slight smirk as he checked them out, the total morning and his bad mood forgotten completely. Sasuke quickly snapped out of it when he caught us staring at him, Hinata's smile turning more and more amused by the second.

"What the fuck are you staring at?" he said, rounding on us looking slightly defensive, as defensive an Uchiha could get anyway.

"Nothing. Sasuke, please mind the language, there are children here," Hinata said with that annoying smile still etched on to her face; it was quite nice to watch that smile being directed at someone else for a change.

"Whatever," the Uchiha spoke before adding at least two kilos of tomatoes into the basket. How can someone eat so many tomatoes?

 _How can someone eat so much ramen?_ My inner voice asked. Right, I had no right to talk about that- maybe Sasuke was a tomato maniac just as I was addicted to ramen?

Paying the bills and collecting our groceries, we went our separate ways.

Sakura had been waiting for us to separate so that she could, "I hate that guy, Naruto. I don't know why but I really hate that guy. It's almost as if he's going to steal something precious from me."

"Oh, come on Sakura-chan cheer up for me. There's no _way_ that bastard's gonna steal anything from you, I mean he has all the damn money in the world so why is gonna steal something?"

"Oh, no not the money, Naruto." And because Sakura couldn't give out better description of what she was feeling, she, "Anyway what do you think of Hinata and Sasuke as a couple? They looked cute, don't you think?"

I watched Sakura for second, taking in the set of her brows, her hand continuously running through the strands of pink hair- her nervous tell- the deep bags under her eyes and figured I should probably play along for now and talk to her later.

"I don't think so, Sakura-chan. I think their relationship is more like something between you and me. The first time I met Sasuke, Hinata actually called him Brother, a title she wouldn't use for someone she's trying to date, ne?" I said drily looking at from the driver's seat in the car. The buildings flashed by…. "I mean it would surely mean _we've_ been doing something wrong all these years, right?" I added before wagging my eyebrows at her suggestively.

"You PERV," Sakura yelled, her face flushed with anger and embarrassment.

That statement had the desired effect, because the rest of the ride was filled with Sakura yelling at me and scolding Jiraiya off the top of her lungs.

Once we got to my apartment, Sakura quickly and effortlessly restocked my entire refrigerator and started making me dinner. This was the norm: Sakura and Mom would fix me dinner whenever they came over to visit, constantly telling me that I would never survive without them. But hey, I was surviving without them cooking dinner just fine, thank you which I would never dream of saying to them.

It was about 6 in the evening when Sakura went home promising to check on me again later that week. I needed a long bath after the day with the Uchihas.

! #$%^^%$# !

After the soul searching hour I spent in the bathroom I decided to eat the surely delicious food Sakura cooked for me.

However, just the thought of the word eat gave me a pause, as I remembered the conversation at lunch a specific bit about how I was supposed to escort Sasuke to meet Fugaku's associates and friends.

How was I even supposed to even contact the guy? He left so quickly at lunch and I totally forgot about the meeting during my visit to the grocery store. I lost my appetite rather quickly after that.

I made my way to the bed ready to fall asleep and forget about the Uchiha business when I found my phone displaying an unread message.

Looking at the message, I felt my eyes go wide for second, smothering my head into the pillow and released a growl of indignant hatred into the pillow.

! #$%^^%$# !

 _Deadlast_

 _9:00 AM Yoyogi Park_

! #$%^^%$# !

The next morning, I woke up at 8, thinking an hour would be enough to get ready. And true to word, I was walking out of my apartment door at 8:45.

The second I walked into the park I noticed the Uchiha sitting on a bench with his arms draped over the back of the bench his head tilted upwards towards the sky, eyes closed. I mean how can someone not notice the guy when he looked like that?! I made my over to him just as he looked ahead and spotted me.

"How did you get my number, Bastard?" I asked in the way of greeting.

"Kushina-san gave it to me."

Wait what?!

"Ho- when?"

"Hn."

He'd already stood up and started walking away, hopefully making his way to his car. I sped to catch up to him and blew up at him again once I reached him.

"Hey! 'hn' is not a word, Bastard!"

"Hn."

Knowing I wouldn't get an answer, I merely kept silent remembering Hinata's word of advice when dealing with a guy like Sasuke: "When he starts saying 'hn' forget your pride and just let him be". Yeah I called her, you can't blame for calling her. The guy seriously tried to snuff a cigarette on his arm, who wouldn't want to ask for advice when dealing with him? I looked sideways to catch a quick glance of his form- not because I couldn't keep my eyes off of him, _no_ that was definitely not the case- I just- just- just

Who am I kidding? I can't keep my eyes off him. Geez, all my earlier months of celibacy were catching up on me. I hadn't dated in several months. My last boyfriend- no, someone doesn't become your boyfriend just because you went on a date with him- proved to be rather clingy in a way that was slightly psychotic. I shuddered. I just pushed the last thought to the back of my mind knowing I would only go on and on about in my head about it and turned my attention to the Uchiha.

The guy looked pale, a lot more than usual too. _'Was he nervous?'_

Once we reached the car, Sasuke moved to the passenger's seat casually throwing the keys at me over the hood of the car- silently ordering me to drive. Surprised he would actually give me the keys I asked, "You sure?"

I made sure to keep the happy dance going in my head off my voice as I asked him.

"Did you pass your drivers' test, Deadlast?"

Scowling at the question, I answered, "Yeah."

"Then drive." Sure, happy to be of service to you, Sir Uchiha!

"Where to?" Where do you want me, the ever lowly chauffer to take you?

"Nara Residence."

Sure Boss!

! #$%^^%$# !

To say the car ride was silent and completely awkward would be an understatement. But I survived and I was proud of that too. How on earth can a person stay so _silent_? All he'd do was stare out at the window throughout the drive, but I noticed his hands actually wringing together sometimes. Another thing I found interesting in the Uchiha is that he always had his wrists covered. Be it with long sleeves or with wrist bands and other such accessories like today. I let my eyes rake over his frame- his white buttoned shirt with his sleeves pulled to the elbows and black jeans and decided that I had definitely been celibate for far too long.

"Eyes on the road," he muttered still turned away in his seat.

The words snapped my attention back to the road. I still glanced at him once in a while but otherwise kept silent. In an attempt to breakdown the tension I reached towards the radio to see what channel Sasuke was tuning into.

It was to my surprise the calmer tones of the western classical music that met my ears. Sasuke's eyes shot to me for just a second before relaxing into the seat once again.

The rest of the car ride to the Nara's was spent in silence with the Debussy's music playing in the background.

It started out with Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi at the Nara residence. They'd easily slipped into a routine, Sasuke playing shogi with Shikaku and the rest of us keeping conversation flowing that ranged from politics to movies while I watched. To actually hear Sasuke talking like and that too keeping up with Nara Shikaku in a shogi game was actually quite a big shock to me. They even kept me in the loop, making sure I was not bored- not something a Nara or an Uchiha would do but something a Yamanaka would certainly do. At the end when we were about to walk away, Nara whispered something to Sasuke, to which he just 'hmme'd'. That had me curious, but they do say 'curiosity killed the cat though' so I wasn't gonna say a word about. It was about 11:00 AM in the morning and we decided to meet up with the old Hag.

The meeting Tsunade Senju was a bit more interesting to watch, because the second Shizune showed us in, Tsunade who was in what looked like an irritating conversation with Sakura leapt up from her chair. Sasuke pushed me aside roughly to the side and I watched just in time to see the old Hag swing her fist. I closed my eyes and waited to hear the sound of Sasuke's nose crunch under Tsunade's fist, but the sound never came. I opened my eyes slowly to see what was happening and immediately felt a laugh bubble up from my mouth. Sasuke had apparently stopped Tsunade's punch, but the old woman quickly grabbed the back of his neck of his neck and started smothering him with her oversized breasts. Sasuke was flailing around trying to get out of her grip while Tsunade had huge triumphant smirk on her face. Shizune was laughing out loud while Sakura had her phone out and was taking pictures for blackmail material.

Ultimately she pushed him off, "Got ya there, Brat! Hahaha."

"You…..you're worse than Jiraiya, you stupid old woman!" Sasuke sputtered quite pissed at the woman in front of him.

To see badass Sasuke being manhandled by a woman half a foot shorter than him was hilarious. But it also spoke of a very particular quality in Sasuke that I've started to like. The quality: if you can make someone happy by letting them have a small part of you, then give yourself away. Sasuke could've easily broken away from Tsunade's grip from what I've seen him do in the past week, but he still let her do it and I was sure I saw him give away a smirk before saying those words to her.

"Now, now boy, you don't compare me to that Pervert. I might really make an impact on that straight nose of yours if you do," she threatened.

And the Uchiha actually bit back a response, when I knew he wanted to say something much worse. It was a wise reaction, too because Tsunade's punches gave you the feeling of being run over by a truck. I've been receiving end of one those and trust me, it was the worst I'd ever felt in my entire life.

But suddenly the whole atmosphere changed from the light banter to high level tension.

"Hello, Naruto. I'll talk to you later- tomorrow- because right now I need to talk to this little bastard about something important. Would you mind staying in the waiting room with Shizune and Sakura?"

That request- no, order – was quite unexpected from Tsunade because she never did hide anything from Sakura or Shizune. To have them both out of the office…

"Of course, Grandma, I'm going." With that I made my way out with Shizune silently following after me. Sakura, however, lingered quietly for a second before Shizune went back to grab her and lead her out.

Through the glass entrance of Tsunade's room we could see Tsunade with look of uncharacteristic rage. It was almost scary to watch. I'd always seen Tsunade with playful smirks on her face but this was whole new expression.

What have you done to make her this angry, Sasuke?

Shizune was quietly sitting by my side, when I directed a question at her, "Do you know what he's done to make her that mad, Shizune-san?"

I saw Sakura look at us from the corner of my eye and noted she too was quite curious.

She merely quirked an eyebrow at me before saying, "He's throwing his life away Naruto. That's what he's doing. For pointless reasons."

"What are you talking about, Shizune-sempai? Why would it matter to Tsunade-shishou if he's throwing away his life? It's his life after all."

Shizune looked at Sakura with quite the amused stare. "Are you jealous of all the attention he's been getting Sakura-chan?"

I felt my eyes go wide at that, _is Sakura really jealous?_ I was sure I could read my sister like an open book but this was not something I had expected.

"No," she said with an even voice, Shizune raised both her eyebrows at that. "Just answer the question sempai!"

"Alright, alright, no need to get all angry and defensive on me now. Sasuke had a lot of expectations on him, right from his childhood, it's just difficult for them all to see him with his goals unachieved, and his life turned into a never ending circus. "

Shizune sounded serious enough that I believed every word she said.

"How so?" I asked.

"Tsunade-sama was once a very good military doctor, Naruto-kun. Sasuke wanted to be one himself and she was looking forward to passing on all of her knowledge to him, but something happened and Sasuke dropped out of the Medical school he studied so hard to get into. Believe me when I say this he doesn't look like the type who has to work hard for what he wants but he worked especially hard for that college entrance exam. There wasn't anyone who didn't know how hard he worked he'd worked to get into that college."

That wasn't the direct answer to the question I gave her, but I filed that away for later. So Tsunade wanted to teach him, eh?

"Hey, if Sasuke graduated so quickly from Konoha high, and he attended a year of college before dropping out, it means we should've seen him, right at least once?" Sakura asked.

"Oh that-"

Tsunade apparently yelled something unintelligible, stood up and started pacing around the back of her seat, his at Sasuke every few seconds. Soon Tsunade's face put up a clearly mocking expression and said something to clearly offend the Uchiha when…..everyone in the cabins even looked to see what was going on in their Commissioner's office.

Sasuke rose abruptly from his seat and slammed a hand onto Tsunade's desk; the sound loud enough that it permeated through the closed door and Tsunade stopped talking almost instantly. We instantly stood up, ready to get to the door and were already there when Tsunade calmly sat down and Sasuke took his place across her.

We just stood there regardless of the fact there didn't seem to be any violent outbreaks anymore. But this close to the door, I noticed that Sasuke and Tsunade didn't seem to be talking. In fact we could see Sasuke take a pen into his left hand- he was left-handed?- and write something onto the paper he'd snatched across the table.

! #$%^^%$# !

Sasuke calmly wrote the things down on the paper.

'Twelve steps to the right along the wall, 5 steps to the side and the floorboard beneath.'

'Two to the right, five to the left, seven to right, six to the right and five to the left starting from the outermost circles.'

'7812'

"This should give you all you need to open that locker without getting bombed."

"What about Kabuto, Sasuke? Where are his secrets stored?"

"You'll get that when you convince certain higher-ups to let Itachi handle the Kabuto Yakushi case. You have enough to hold him for a few months anyway."

"Sasuke, Brat, you know I can't work like that. The system doesn't allow me do these things anymore."

"Sarutobi-sensei is already on the case as the judge anyway, Commissioner, all you have to do is push Itachi's name to the forefront. I don't think there's anyone in this place that can give that little girl the justice she deserves."

"Justice she deserves, Sasuke," Tsunade said looking at him with narrowed eyes, "Or the revenge you are ready to pursue."

Sasuke leant back in his chair getting comfortable as Tsunade's eyes further narrowed to slits as she folded her arms across her chest, and looked at her with a bored, aloof look that would've been a classic Nara look. His brother would be so proud if he saw Sasuke wear that look…..

"If I wanted revenge, Tsunade, we both know, I would have killed him already or _had_ him killed at least. I have enough contacts all over the place; contacts who would be more than _pleased_ to do the job for me once I give them the word. There are at least three of them in this very city. Besides Orochimaru is already dead, there's nothing to pursue."

Tsunade did not like to think of how many contacts the boy had made in his recent travels in the field he chose for himself. And she was not ready to talk about her once-upon-a-time-colleague to Sasuke, so she neatly changed the subject.

"The child is scared shitless, Brat. She won't listen to anyone after Kabuto sent men to her house last night. She's still seventeen and doesn't have the same upbringing we've had; where we are made capable of protecting ourselves and the others around us. It's actually a surprise that the family even came forward to lodge a complaint," she said carefully looking for any signs of anger in Sasuke's face.

"What the hell have the police been doing then, Commissioner? Are you people so incapable of protecting a family of three?" he muttered trying very hard to ignore the feeling of someone glaring holes through his frame.

He resisted the itch to turn around. Tsunade's face was blank and that was saying something because Sasuke prided himself in being able to read other people. If Hashirama-jii were here in this room he'd probably hail his granddaughter's poker face to the high heavens and back. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

She snatched the paper under his arms and tore off an edge and wrote something and thrust it into his hand with the following words written:

'There's a mole in the office. Someone high positioned, you know the risks of high positioned moles, couldn't put the child's safety in the wrong hands.'

This reason seemed to satisfy Sasuke as he looked up at her and nodded.

'I would offer, but I'm currently babysitting someone else,' he wrote back.

The room's somber atmosphere immediately lightened and Tsunade looked at Sasuke with a twinkle in her amber eye.

"And how do you like that, Sasu-chan? Is my boy giving you any trouble?"

'I'm sure you know exactly how much trouble he's been giving me,' he wrote back at the edge of the paper.

Her entire face glowed with the amusement, before dimming.

"Seriously, Sasuke, just how troublesome are these guys getting?"

'Nowhere near what Taka can't handle.' Sasuke had written this with conviction that made Tsunade pleased with their decision. "For now." He added slowly.

"You expecting more rice-balls or any tasty foreign dishes too? You've done very good job until now, congratulations."

Sasuke let the compliment slide. He stared at the ceiling before giving the answer, "I don't know."

Tsunade looked contemplative for a minute after Sasuke said this. What did this mean? Sasuke and not knowing? Sure they hadn't told Sasuke every little thing about the threat; in fact they'd been pretty vague about it only telling him to babysit for a while until they catch their guy but _Sasuke_ not checking for further details had Tsunade's alarm bells ringing.

"You haven't the done background checks yet. That's odd," she stated not questioned, as it was rare for Sasuke to not know something what with his contacts and his computer skills.

She observed Sasuke's reaction to her words anticipating another blank gaze only to find him giving an aged, tired look at the ceiling; a face that looked a decade older than his 27 years. She was starting to grow concerned and was about to speak, when the _perfect_ Uchiha mask snapped back into place and his face once again giving nothing away.

Sasuke didn't speak for a few more minutes but he saw Tsunade waiting patiently for him to speak. A first considering just how impatient that woman was.

"I will, if there's more of a serious threat; they're just Yakuza," he said, making a face showing how annoyed he was, "Until then, I just want to live in the present and not want to think of being ten steps ahead of whoever, the person behind this, is."

"So you're telling me that- y-you're n-not …Sasuke, you _should_ do a-"

"Not now." The finality in his voice gave Tsuande pause. Sasuke _never_ liked to be kept in the dark. Just how tired have you gotten of the life you're leading?

Reading Tsunade's blatant shock Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh and merely stretched his hands above his head. He could once again feel the gaze on his back; a gaze that was burning him, the man holding the gaze a very similar copy of _him._ Sasuke barely stopped himself from being violently sick in Tsunade's office.

"I already have a few back-up plans in place if things were to go wrong at any point, there's no actual reason to worry that head of yours."

 _Of_ _course_ Sasuke had plans…..but this was going to blow up in all their faces if there was a lapse in Sasuke's concentration even for a second. She needed to discuss this with the others quickly and get their inputs too.

' _Not yet'_ Sasuke had said. So he _was_ expecting more trouble. At least that settled her doubts and concerns. For now.

He just didn't want to deal with all that at once and was letting the chips fall into their place until he was forced to deal with it; the way Sasuke was playing the game- it was dangerous.

Sasuke once again resisted the urge to look over his shoulder. He could feel the Deadlast's gaze on his back again. Tsunade had noticed her underlings and her Godson peeking into the room and she sighed.

"Sasuke, I think it's best if you leave now. Naruto is getting impatient and so is my apprentice."

"Sakura Haruno." Sasuke said, attaching her maiden name and not her married one at the end and Tsunade had to roll her eyes at Sasuke's barely there revulsion for her apprentice. Sasuke being, the bull-headed brother he was, thought there was no woman in this world who was worthy of Itachi. Now _there's_ a case of classic Brother Complex the Uchiha men suffered from. "What are you going to do with her? She knows about the Yakuza and is bound to dig around considering she's _your_ apprentice."

"I'll keep her away from this, Sasuke, you don't have to get your knickers in a twist. Also about the Yakushi case, are you sure you want to testify with your brother sitting not two feet from you? Or better yet if you wanna testify you're gonna have to tell your brother the complete details of your time with Orochimaru."

Sasuke knew what she was implying. Tokyo would suffer with his brother on the rampage.

"Your brother may very well commit patricide once he finds out the extent of the…..mechanisms that were provided to help you _cope_. So I think it's best if I send Gaara Sabaku's name to the forefront of this investigation."

Oh sure Itachi would commit patricide, he thought rolling his eyes at the insane rage his older brother felt whenever matters came to Sasuke; his overprotective nature was known all over the city. And he was quite feared too. Thank God he'd ended up on the right side of the law or otherwise…Sasuke didn't even want to think about that.

 _Gaara Sabaku…. Hmmmm the son of Ex-General Rasa Sabaku….._

Sasuke rose to his feet before looking down. "I'll handle Itachi and make sure he doesn't end up in jail for killing my father. I'll talk to the child too, and her family and maybe contact a few people to keep them safe. I'll let you know tomorrow? Sabaku should get the job done, considering his past…."

Tsunade's eyes widened at the seemingly easy reference Sasuke made to Gaara's past which not to mention was classified. Of course classified information meant nothing to the brat, Tsunade thought shaking her head.

She nodded and turned her attention to the papers in front of her effectively dismissing Sasuke. "Don't bully the family too much and don't throw around classified information like it's nothing you idiot."

"I'm not making any promises."

He walked out of the door and continued to the car parking area- not waiting for his blonde companion- his shouts across the office sill lingering in hiss ears- and who had run to keep up with Sasuke. Sasuke smirked. After a long time, Uchiha Sasuke was having fun and that thought was enough to sober him up; he couldn't forget the end-goal. He couldn't forget the end-goal.

! #$%^^%$# !

I, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, am willing to kill the raven-head named Sasuke Uchiha out of sheer embarrassment and humiliation. Seriously the bastard actually had the nerve to walk out of the door, not look at meand just continue walking pretending not to hear my calling out to him and that too when _I_ had the keys to his car and was currently being made to drive?

To say, I got myself into a shitty mood is an understatement. I mean seriously what kind of an asshole does that?

And the bastard had a stupid smirk on his handsome face, too. Currently, I'm driving this beauty of a car again, with its _annoying_ owner sitting next to me with a blank look. He was staring out the window again and this time we were going to meet up with Chouji Akimichi in the Akimichi restaurant across town. The idea of getting lunch was actually far more welcoming to me than the idea of driving this bastard. So I sped going over the speed limit, driving at a speed of nearly 75 km/hr, the speed giving me a feeling of exhilaration- a burst of adrenaline- that almost made me giddy.

"Slow _down,_ " I heard the bastard hiss.

I quickly looked at his face which was turned towards me for a change and found it strangely devoid of all color. I thought he loved his speed? When I made no move to slow down, Sasuke apparently lost enough patience with me and threw his arm towards the hand brake by the side.

"Slow down, _now,_ or I swear to all the Gods above, I will throw you out of the car while it's moving."

"I thought you loved travelling fast bastard," I said, stepping down on the accelerator some more. I saw Sasuke's eyes widen from sort of panic, from the corner of my eye. But that was gone a second later.

"I didn't know you drove for the Formula-1, deadlast," he said clearly mocking me.

"What?" that statement out of no-fucking-where, had my head spinning. _Formula-1?_

Sasuke sighed, "Slow down, Deadlast. I don't endanger my co-passengers."

That statement however made perfect sense. And with that the previous one also made sense. I carefully looked over his frame to note that his hand which had the handbrake in a death grip was shaking- the knuckles white. Sasuke seriously _meant_ for him to slow down and he was not just mocking him. I slowed reluctantly to within the speed limit and saw Sasuke's hand relax and move away from the handbrake.

I swear I heard a sigh of relief but decided not to think on it.

! #$%^^%$# !

After an extremely hearty meal at the Akimichi restaurant, Sasuke and I headed back to the Yoyogi Park where we could go our separate ways. The lunch at Akimichi's had been fun, mostly because of such good food. I was actually surprised to see Sasuke eating a healthy, full sized meal unlike the ones' he ate at school. It seemed the Uchiha had quite the voracious appetite and yet only ate as much food when away from school. I also noticed Sasuke actually conversing with the college who waited our tables.

The conversation was pretty basic at the beginning with the girl shyly fluttering her eyes and biting her lip trying to flirt with the Uchiha. But soon Sasuke had managed to turn the conversation onto what the girl's major was at college. From there on the conversation flowed seamlessly with both of them throwing technical bio-medical terms around, chatting about recent research papers that'd been published. It was surprising to see how the Uchiha actually seemed at peace making the conversation with her and actually encouraging her when barely yesterday he seemed all against the idea of being encouraging to Konohamaru.

When I asked though this was how the conversation went….

" _Why can't you be like that with Konohamaru?" I asked sullenly, as I exited the building with the Uchiha behind me._

 _He merely raised an eyebrow at the question as if I were really asking him that.. or to see if I was going to stop expecting an answer. He sighed when he noticed me being stubborn._

" _Sarutobi is not trying to reach his true potential, which is what annoys me," he drawled as he checked the watch. "He is quite capable of doing well in math but he won't because he hates it, that's not something I approve."_

Back at the park, I felt like I needed to say something when Sasuke merely turned away from me and walked back to the car.

"Bye, I guess," I muttered before turning to the direction of my apartment.

As I walked away I noticed how strange it was that I spent nearly a whole day with Sasuke considering it was close to evening and yet….. it almost felt like he was still with me. But that was something else…. Who would've thought that I made it a day without killing Sasuke and at such close quarters? The whole day felt more like a dream to me. I mean nearly a whole day with Uchiha Sasuke? I was pretty sure I would kill him before the day ended.

But then maybe the Uchiha wasn't so bad after all. I mean I'd seen him play a game of shogi against the Nara who was practically unbeaten in it-that just showed me he didn't care about losing, something I assumed once again he'd care about. Even though Sasuke did seem to play better than most it was still impossible to beat Shikaku Nara and the game actually ended with a light banter to my surprise.

" _Good game, kid! You were great. You'd probably give Shikamaru a run for his money if you play him."_

" _I'm fairly certain he'd beat me if he put his mind to it and didn't think of it as a drag to play against someone like me," Sasuke retorted._

" _Yeah, yeah that too. Now get out of here, I'm sure you have tons of other people to visit."_

 _Sasuke had merely smirked at the older man._

Enough about Sasuke, I thought to myself. I mean what was the point of thinking about someone who obviously thought of you as nothing. I mean the way he'd walked away from Tsunade's office had been a little eye-opening for me. He was a grade-A jerk with good looks and I was _not_ going to think about him. Despite Sasuke's little opening up session with me about Konohamaru- if you can even consider it that- I was not going to involve myself with him.

So I gradually made my way across the street, in no way hurrying to get home. This was a good day out and I was going to enjoy it to my best. Soon though I could see the building I lived in right across the street.

As I made my way down to my building I felt an incredible urge come up; an urge that told me to get the fuck away from the place. It was the first time in a long time that I'd felt like that. I don't know for some reason I just wanted to run, run as far from the place as possible.

The thing is people always thought I was oblivious to certain things like self-preservation. But that wasn't exactly true. I'd lived in Russia for the better part of sixteen years of my life. Russia was a place with mobsters trying to make the lives of everyone living there miserable. Sakura and I had spent sixteen years of our lives trying to evade the mobsters and find better routes to travel safely. Our parents had tried to protect us the best they could and trust me that's saying something. Sakura had learnt self defense and my parents tried really hard to get me to learn too, but I put my foot down on the subject. And I learned something else all on my own. I learned to be stealthy, stealthy enough to work my way out of trouble without having to lift a finger in retaliation.

I could walk away from a place without having anyone noticing me. I could come up behind you and you wouldn't even know. The first time I'd used stealth in Japan was on the first day of school at Knoha. Someone had cornered Sakura due to her unusual pink hair, who despite her self-defense lessons thought it would be best not to fight on the first day. I'd gone up behind him and told him in a not-so-pleasant tone to get away from my sister. But that ended up quite differently because then the guy rounded up on me after coming out of shock. Sakura, who'd seen quite enough of the bullying, had then decided to simply stake her claim over the territory by…..you guessed it, folks. By punching him-punching him hard enough that his nose broke.

After that we stayed away from people. 'Is that because of the language barrier?' you ask There was never a language barrier because Sakura and I could both speak Russian and Japanese quite fluently. Mom had been a Russian and Dad was Japanese, despite his blonde hair.

But now the familiar gut instinct was telling me to walk away. But thanks to the decade of living in the safety cocoon of Japan, I ignored it. Something I was sure going to regret later.

My apartment building offered basic security. It was still safer than most of the areas in downtown. It was also quite cheap because most of the tenants here were University students who bunked together to save money. They also stayed away from the building on the weekends because basically they got homesick and some would usually go to visit their families. It was that time of the year anyway, the time where college students got a little breathing space from all the work that gets piled up and most took advantage of that.

There weren't many people in the building now as I walked in. I took the stairs for some reason though I usually take the elevator to get to the 6th floor.

I made my way to my door when it happened; the sound of something exploding which shook the building's foundation. I almost lost my balance thanks to that explosion. I could smell the smoke in the air, as it started engulfing the building. The fire alarms blared. I cautiously opened the door to my apartment, completely deliberate. 'Why?' you ask. Survival, there, that is the only word answer you're gonna get.

I would not be Kushina Uzumaki's son and Hatake Kakashi's student if I let the panic overwhelm me now. Those two had very bad tempers and the only way to get back on their good side would be to weather the storm and not panic in front of it.

It was a good thing most the kids in the building were gone and the kids who did stay would usually end up studying for hours at the library for tests. So I was quite glad in the circumstances that it was only me and few other people. I carefully made my way into the bathroom placing a cotton handkerchief under the water.

From the looks of things I had about five to ten minutes before the building went down or the fire would surround me on all sides. I could see the smoke getting heavier and could feel my eyes starting to smart. I quickly brought the hand-kerchief over my nose and mouth careful not to let the soot get into my airways which would make recovery difficult. I could already hear the remaining unlucky people who were trapped with me in the burning building, screaming. What caused the burning would be secondary concern right now, survival took the first place.

I could already hear the orders being shouted from the person who lived two floors down to me. He wanted to get people out safely and that was something I would have done too. As I made my way down the stairs calmly, not letting the panic I felt take over, the stairs started shaking. I reached to grab at the wall which only made my precarious balance waver that much more.

My eyes were stinging with all the smoke. I quickly made it down to two more levels making me reach the third when the building shook even more fiercely making me drop the kerchief I was holding. Damn! I thought. The smoke was denser on this level making me soon suffocate. I needed something to filter my breath dammit.

The heat was slowly starting to rise as I reached the second floor making me believe it was here everything started. I could feel the sweat rolling down my back and face; the heat would only get worse.

I could feel my head pounding with a head-ache and my heart decided it was time to start pounding hard at the rib-cage as the panic started overwhelming me. Two more floors I thought. The others were probably all downstairs, all safely evacuated and I was all the more glad for it. I had to get away, _now._

As I reached the first floor, my vision started darkening around the edges.

 _Shit!_ I was going to lose consciousness soon, my throat started to feel itchy which was the one thing I wanted to avoid. I could faintly hear the sirens of the fire-trucks.

The building shook even more and I barely managed to stay on my feet but I could suddenly feel the floor underneath me start to give away. I'm going to die I thought belatedly. I should have stayed away from the building from the building as my gut told me to.

Oh the irony! I was probably one of those people who would always tell you to follow your gut instinct; it was slightly ironic I didn't do the same.

Shit, my thoughts then turned to Mom and Dad. Sakura, Jiraiya, Itachi, the entire Uchiha family, Tobi- kun. Not once did Sasuke's face cross my thoughts.

It was only when I was on the brink of losing consciousness did the Uchiha's stoic face come to my mind's view. His eyes that could look into the depths of your soul, the ever elegant straight nose, the high cheek bones, that mouth that makes you wish you could punch him for the biting sarcasm it delivers with every word it utters…..

It was on the verge of unconsciousness did I finally realize what I really felt about Sasuke, great. Great I had a crush on Uchiha-fucking-Sasuke and I only realize this as I lay on the floor of a burning building nearly unconscious.

Over the roaring in my ear I could still hear the ceiling start to give away and I had no way to protect myself from the eventual debris it would leave.

As I lay dying on the floor of the burning building with fire raging on all sides, choking on the heat and the very breath I took, that I came to realize three important things.

One: I was going to pretty much meet my maker today.

Two: I didn't want to die.

Three: I wanted to live long enough to at least be able to kiss that sarcastic bastard in the mouth once before succumbing to my death.

 **There that was the fifth chapter.**

 **Reviews always make me feel better, so spare a moment to review please.**

 **And also thank you for all the follows and favs….. those really made me feel so much better.**

 **Oh before I forget any and all statements I'd made about Russia and Russian mobsters are purely based on what I've read in other stories and are totally for the sake of the story. I've never visited Russia so I don't actually get to judge the people there. So please keep that in mind…..**


	6. Chapter 6: The Accidental Kiss

**Chapter 6: The Accidental Kiss**

It's been nearly a week and now I find myself standing in front of a certain Uchiha bastard's apartment. Apparently everyone thought this was the best solution to my problem (which if you ask is certainly not! Well… who was I kidding? It's the greatest!) but it the only option, although I did put up an extremely powerful and an insanely useful Uzumaki tantrum(just for the sake of it, actually) to avoid it. But that wouldn't naturally work against my Mother who for all intents and purposes had been dealing with these tantrums for as long as I'd been alive. Not that I was putting any heat behind those tantrums that is.

Seriously, this was the worst idea. Seriously, I mean seriously, _seriously_ this was a bad idea. Just who the heck thought it would be a good experience to live with an Uchiha who had an especially huge stick shoved up his ass?- my mother, that sweet and sometimes (read usually) very infuriating woman. But the last encounter showed me the act the Uchiha put up for the world- a small part anyway. He was still 90 percent Bastard though.

It also didn't help the fact that the first thing I wanted to do was to shove him against the wall and kiss the grumpy Bastard. But

But-

The probability of that happening was slim at best and none at worst despite the reaction I'd gotten during that one-time not-so-much-accidental-but-meant-to-shut-you-up kiss anyway.

And how did I even end up in this predicament you ask? This is how...

 _It'd been two days since that infamous fire accident that destroyed my cozy little apartment and the one that nearly killed me in the process. I woke up about a day ago to learn that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Meaning even though my apartment's burnt to hell, I escaped with little to no injuries at all. I mean if you could exclude the smoke inhalation and the scratches._

 _So a day after staying in the hospital, getting visited by my studen_ _ts and friends, I decided that sitting in the hospital doing nothing was not my thing. Nuh-uh seriously not my thing at all._

 _So now here I was making plans to get out of the hospital as soon as I could, but I hit a wall then. If I did manage to escape this place of death and healing_ where _would I go? With my apartment destroyed, the second honeymoon phase my parents were going through and a screaming toddler-Gods knows how I love Tobi-kun, but sometimes I needed a little space- at my sister's- where am I to go?_

 _So immersed I was in my thoughts, I never noticed that I was speaking them out loud. And Uchiha Itachi was standing in the doorway listening to them with an unreadable face._

After that Itachi and my parents somehow decided to bully Sasuke into letting me spend some time at his place and man was Sasuke pissed at being ganged up on like that.

The conversation had led to some dangerous conclusions.

Sasuke did _not_ wish to spend any time with me being the classic loner he is.

 _I_ didn't care that Sasuke was hesitant to let me in his home.

That led to the third and final conclusion I had a freaking death wish because Uchiha Sasuke did not seem to have any time to deal with my childish little crush.

But-

But who _cares._

! #$%^ &&^%$# !

I was now sitting in the Uchiha's apartment, on his extremely comfy couch, waiting for the Bastard to show up from wherever he'd disappeared to. It was Saturday evening and the Uchiha was out. Even Jugo was absent.

I was, for once, behaving like a 'good little boy'-not like the one 'stuck overnight in a candy store'. I merely observed the whole apartment to see if I missed anything from the last time around this place. And just like last time nothing seemed to be out of place. God, why was he so _clean_?

I looked around for a few more moments when I heard someone at the door. I made my way towards it expecting it to be Sasuke only to be disappointed. It wasn't Sasuke, it was Shisui.

"Hey there, Kid. Sorry I couldn't visit you there at the hospital," was his greeting as he slowly brushed past me to the couch.

"That's okay," I mumbled as I followed him back to my previous perch.

There was small comfortable silence that followed which was quickly broken by my guest.

"So I heard you kissed Sasuke," he said seemingly out of nowhere making my face burst up in flames as I glared at him. That was not a moment I wanted to remember, damnit.

The second time the Uchiha came to my hospital room was the second time they tried to convince him and that conversation ended very differently compared to the one they'd had before.

 _A day after I declared my boredom out loud and the first try at convincing Sasuke, my object of obsession walked in with four people trailing after him. My parents, Itachi and Mikoto. After a little customary greeting –_ hello people, I'm right here- _they had all quite naturally slipped back into the argument they'd been having from before._

" _I don't have time," growled the youngest Uchiha in the room._

" _What do you even need time for, Sasuke? He's a grown adult. All we want is for you to-" Itachi started_

" _No."_

" _Sasuke what's so wrong with helping someone out?" Mikoto asked. There was a strange sort of apprehension in Mikoto's eyes as she asked him._

 _Everyone seemed to stare as the Uchiha tensed for a second before relaxing._

" _Okay," he murmured quietly, his head bowed and his shoulders slouched. Like a petulant child being chastised, he started away for the door._

" _Where are you going, Sasuke-kun?" my mother asked._

" _I need to baby-proof my apartment before_ someone _ends up at my only safe haven and buy some baby toys to occupy that said someone," he muttered glaring at me._

 _For a moment I felt bad, about that but then I decided we could have so much more fun if I stayed there. Now if only I could convince him, I already had a way._

" _Oh. I'm pretty sure that I know how to play with big Boy toys now," I said giving him my most innocent look._

 _I smirked inwardly at the slightly widened eyes. And before I could gloat any longer Sasuke's face took on a whole new look (which_ should _be banned from existence); his mouth in a wicked smirk and his eyes lighting up with the darkest of humor. I couldn't help but smirk outwardly unable to help myself, as I saw the Uchiha responding to the innuendo. It was nice to see the bastard smirk and see his eyes twinkling like that. I made a mental note to make sure he's smirking or smiling all the time when I eventually get out of the hospital. Because a smirking Sasuke was pure Sin, with a capital S._

 _It didn't matter that there were others in the room and Sasuke didn't seem to care about that either. My eyes, they were only for him. But still Sasuke kept quiet as if slowly assessing me again, before he chuckled quietly and made his way towards the hospital bed._

" _Are you sure about that, Dead last?"_

 _Even annoyed slightly with unneeded nickname, I reply, "Quite."_

 _I smile at him- all teeth, of course- and watch his face inches from mine. His eyes holding a dark promise, which I'm sure, is reflecting in mine as well._

" _I don't think you_ can _, Na-ru-to," he whispered, his breath fanning cheeks. There was never a point in my life where I wanted to punch a guy and still kiss him at the same time._

 _So I leant up and press my lips against his surprisingly soft ones. All I could think at that moment was that I never wanted to let go again. I coaxed his lips to move against mine, and after a second felt his lips move against mine._

 _It was a surprisingly chaste kiss, despite all the darker things that were being unsaid between us- Sasuke didn't seem to make any move to deepen it either. But after a moment I could feel Sasuke smile against my mouth. I pulled back and watched Sasuke's eyes light up with amusement. I heard soft laughter coming from somewhere in the room but chose not to pay any attention to it._

" _Is this how you plan to handle my toys, Naruto?" the amusement there grew ten-fold when I smirked._

" _What, you don't like it?" I asked knowing full well that Sasuke's smirk was wider than before- into an almost-grin, "I mean I did get you to shut up, didn't I? I'm sure I'll be able to handle the rest of them."_

 _Sasuke's mouth opened to retort when his phone rang, loud, shrill and demanding. Sasuke for his part merely blinked for second before straightening and coming up with his phone in his hand in a single fluid movement. He glanced at the caller id for a second and all the amusement that had been dancing in his eyes vanished in a way that made me think it was never even present in the first place. Whoever was on the other end, I wanted to make sure they never called Sasuke again- that or strangle that person so he never calls again._

"Doctor Hobbs _?" he answered in fluent English, a sort of melancholy to his voice he'd never heard to any person's voice before. Itachi moved in getting closer to Sasuke._

 _His eyebrows wrinkled slightly as he tried to hold in his obvious confusion as he muttered,_ "Then who-?"

 _His eyes tightened at not being allowed to finish his question and I had to hold in a shiver at the way his eyes darkened almost murderously right before my eyes, his family now hovering close to Sasuke. His hand curled into a fist and he lowered the phone slightly to meet everyone's eyes in the room as he whispered a "I need to take this" and left the room without so much of a backward glance._

 _I finally allowed myself to look at the others present in the room after feeling the faintly amused glances directed at me. Itachi and Mikoto were still looking at the closed door with slightly troubled looks and then there were my parents looking at me with the most amused, exasperated glares they could manage and the effect of those glares was lost because of that amusement._

" _What?" I asked, crossing my arms across my chest. Hearing my voice caused both the Uchiha to turn around and look at me._

" _Toys?" my Mom asked looking slightly exasperated._

 _I turned away, fixing my gaze to the floor ignoring the blush that ran up my face even as Dad chuckled and Itachi walked up to me._

 _I looked up to meet his face and found the expression genuinely happy although I couldn't figure out why._

" _Naruto-kun, looks like you're finally back, to your normally annoying self," he said as a way of beginning._

" _Looks like I finally am," I replied grinning back at him._

" _Then I'd like to say this," giving me the sweetest most innocent expression which was downright terrifying on his face, "I'm sure Sasuke can do more than just protect himself but, hurt him and you'll be on the fast track way to hell."_

 _I shivered at the words coming in such even tones, because they seemed to carry the threat to them all the more. Itachi actually gave me a small genuine smile for the occasion and I could understand why Sakura decided to go for the older Uchiha. For all their stoic genes, they truly looked devastatingly beautiful when they smiled._

" _I'll be taking my leave then, Kaa-san."_

 _And then I was left with the older generation looking at me and me staring right back at them._

! #$%^^%$# !

Back to the present I found Shisui staring at me with a really clouded expression.

I'd already dealt with one over-protective brother I seriously didn't need to deal with another. So I merely scratched the back of my neck and "heheh sorta."

Shisui, I'm pretty sure at that point would have face palmed if it weren't for the stoic genes in him. Sigh….

"Naruto-kun, I love you like a brother, but be careful with Sasuke."

I gaped at that. "What?"

"Sasuke doesn't like being touched. He should've been in an extremely good mood for him to not have broken anything on your face. Well I got a date with Hana and I don't wanna be late, so see ya, Naruto" He said looking me straight in the eye. Just before he left though he had a teasing glint in his eyes as he said, "Oh, don't shove my baby cousin up a wall as soon as he comes in Naruto, he might turn the whole situation around."

With that Shisui stood up and left me there to my misery.

I'd seriously wanted nothing more than to surprise Sasuke long enough to steal a kiss from him when he finally came home, but it looks my plans would have to be kept on hold for now.

! #$%^&&^%$# !

My first day at the grumpy Uchiha's apartment was a Sunday. And if you were wondering where the bastard was, he was out for a jog. Or that's what Juugo told me anyway.

Not like I care. I was sitting on the couch again, this time with Juugo sitting there as well. He had the news on and was sitting comfortably. Last night the Uchiha had brought take-out and muttered something about not having time for grocery shopping. Juugo came by a few minutes later and we were soon a part of what I would call the most awkward dinner on the planet. It was okay though. I spent the next hour or so, getting acquainted with the apartment. I made the bedroom, Sasuke'd most graciously provided me with, a little more colorful by adding a few trinkets my students and friends had given me as get-well-presents during my hospital stay. I also filled the small closet in the room with the clothes I managed to buy before coming here which would last a few days and I still needed to get more. I fell asleep picturing the dark sexy smirk of the Uchiha to keep the nightmares involving my near-death experience away. Somehow this one little incident brought back all the skeletons in my closet.

I shook my head and tried to clear the memories of last night, and the subsequent visions of those days. No need to sour my mood by being a grouchy jerk I'm sure I could become if I wanted to.

The front door opened, and the Uchiha in question, walked in looking all sweaty and tired, and we fell silent. I had another urge to repeat the hospital incident but the Bastard was basically radiating 'stay away from me' vibes.

I watched the dynamic of the other two from my perch on the couch. Juugo had very quietly gone to the kitchen before the Uchiha even made it to the couch and brought a water bottle along with him. The Uchiha chugged it down in three big gulps before nodding in thanks and going off to his room.

"Yay, way to noticing us bastard," I muttered and the Uchiha paused before entering his room. "Good morning to you, too."

"Good morning," he mumbled quietly before turning around to face me with an unreadable look. He continued staring at me and the staring was slowly losing its novelty. It was as if he was suddenly remembering that I was going to be staying there.

 _Sigh…._

Sasuke, the impatient bastard that he is, didn't wait for me to respond and walked into his room shutting the door behind him.

Juugo had gone away to kitchen and by the sounds of it was making breakfast for the three of us. I took note of the time as 8:15 AM and quickly went to get ready for the day as well. I walked into the guest room which is now mine and picked out some clothes.

The guest room here in the apartment had been much too dark for my taste before I livened it up. It had a dark bed spread, dark curtains, dark well everything. The bed- queen-sized, was probably the only thing I liked. It was comfy just the way a bed should be.

I entered the bathroom and looked at my reflection in the mirror, and noticed the one thing I'd been avoiding for year and a half. I'd changed a lot, not in the purely physical sense, but that I was no longer the same guy I had been from a year ago. It took a lot for me to admit that. The relationship itself had been toxic. And the changes that came with it were even worse because the person staring back at me was just a shell of what I'd been. No need to think about the past now, Naruto, think of the present, I think to myself. But with a chance at a new potential lover, I think it would be better if I went back to the way I was, had been.

I was pretty sure my Dad wouldn't have suggested this living together thing after the kiss he'd witnessed in the hospital but I gotta say I was happy to finally _feel_ something like this for someone again. Fucking _finally_.

It was difficult to think of what happened a year ago - a time where I'd been an entirely different person. Smothering a panic attack about that particular night I quickly set about finishing my morning routine.

By the time I got out, Sasuke and Juugo were sitting quietly at the table in the kitchen.

"Um, you could have started without me," I said taking the empty seat.

"Rule no.1, Naruto-san. When we live together in the same house, we eat together at the same table together," Juugo said patiently.

Oh that was a nice rule….

"Wait -rule?" I asked slightly confused. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched and I noted another thing about the Uchiha in a mental list of all things Uchiha. Sasuke liked his mornings quiet. I'm sure I could get an extremely big list before I leave.

"Yes, rule. We made that one, when Suigetsu finished Karin's favorite cereal. We decided that the fight that ensued was _not_ worth a repeat," Juugo said mildly.

I can only imagine the red haired woman beating the poor man up and shuddered at the thought.

"Thank you for the breakfast," I muttered under my breath and watched the other two begin eating before digging in myself.

Not wanting a repeat of last night's awkward silence, I broke it quickly not caring about the Uchiha's temper.

"I wanna go out this morning to get some more clothes?"

"You don't have to ask for our permission, Dead last."

"I wasn't asking for permission, just wanted to see if any of you wanted to come with me," I asked leaning my face forward on my palm of hand. Sasuke's eye twitched again and I could watch Juugo's eyes crinkle slightly with amusement. "And I'm only asking you because my car's still in the parking lot across my building and Dad drove me here."

"I'll come with you Naruto-san," Juugo replied quickly before an argument could erupt.

"Thanks and before I forget just Naruto please," I said giving him my most charming smile.

Juugo cracked a grin and whispered, "Of course and please call me Juugo instead."

And we fell into a silence after that, it didn't seem awkward anymore. So I let it go.

! #$%^&&^%$# !

Shopping with the big man, Juugo, was as easy as breathing. He'd simply shake his head at some of my usually color-blind choices and provide an alternative color. Needless to say this was the most relaxed shopping trip of all. Usually shopping in the Uzumaki-Namikaze household was kind of an all day affair where my Mother and Sakura would gang-up on me and I'd spend the rest of the time alternating between yelling and sulking.

Lunch took me and Juugo to a small diner at the corner of the shopping district. The restaurant had a cozy, homey feel to it.

"So Juugo, where are you from, anyway? It's kinda obvious you're not from Japan, despite the fluency of your Japanese," I said setting a new topic change. Maybe it was slightly forward of me to ask but who cared for society's rules anyway.

"Mexico, Naruto. I had few bad experiences and decided to travel. I met Sasuke-san along the way. I liked him, so I decided to follow him around."

"Oh you're one of I those types too, huh," I mumbled looking out the window to see the people passing through the streets.

"Types?" the big man asked.

"Oh, nothing. You just sounded like Kakashi-sensei for a second," I replied looking into my plate at my sandwich.

"There are a lot of us like that, Naruto-san. A lot of us who are like that," Juugo said looking away into the street.

! #$%^&&^%$# !

When we reached the empty apartment- surprise, surprise- Juugo said something about visiting Karin and Suigetsu. He said that and I quote, "they need someone to check on them so that they don't kill each other".

I, once again-for the lack of better word- found myself alone. It wasn't all that bad. I had a giant-ass TV to keep myself entertained with and I did just that. I put on a comedy stunt show that would most definitely make me laugh and settled on the sofa. It was incredibly quiet in the apartment without Sasuke and Juugo around and the silence was lulling me to sleep. I once again found myself thinking of the Bastard's eyes because that was one of the safest topics to think about and those thoughts are more than enough to make me entertained as well. I could feel my eyelids grow heavier. Resting my eyes for a moment seems like a very…..

! #$%^&&^%$# !

 _Cold….._

 _So cold…._

 _I was surrounded by flames and yet there was nothing but coldness seeping through me. The fire touching my skin seemed to be burning cold. I could feel my breath fogging in front of me but shouldn't fire burn?_

 _Why was I freezing?_

 _Suddenly I could feel a presence standing above me, holding something shiny in the dark._

 _The cold edge of the shiny object in the hands of the one above touching the hollow of my neck and I shuddered, moving away from the man, my hands coming up to restrain the hands of the man holding the knife, a harsh gasp escaping my lips_

 _And the next thing I knew, I was being held down by strong firm hands. Hands that I waited for to deal the killing blow, and yet that blow never came._

 _Everything suddenly went up in flames and unlike the freezing fire before, this one seemed to burn like an inferno, burning me, consuming me._

 _The person behind the strong warm hands was calling out to me….._

! #$%^ &&^%$# !

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know I'm being held face down by the Bastard who was kneeling before the sofa. I instinctively flinch away and let out a growl and the hand retreated. I could feel the cold sweat that made my shirt cling to my chest. I slowly meet the Bastard's eyes and find a look that tells me I'm still slightly disoriented from the nightmare- _was that concern in the Bastard's eyes?_ But it's gone before I can think about it and thinking about it was going to make my head hurt anyway.

"You okay?" I hear the Bastard ask.

I nod; still feeling slightly disoriented and sit up to look at the guy.

"What were you dreaming about?" he asks again, his tone evidently indicating some form of curiosity and hesitation.

What was he, my therapist, I wanted to snap, but something makes me hold back. The thing is there was nothing that resembled pity in Sasuke's face as I checked his face over for it. I hate being pitied. It was one thing to be pitied and know what you were being pitied for and it was a whole other thing to not know what earned the pity in the first place.

That's right I barely remember my nightmares. In fact I've never so much as remembered any of them in all my 27 years of a short life. I do know I have them because I've woken up in covered cold sweat, and panting to get enough air into my lungs lots of times, but I never seemed to remember any part of it once I woke up. The doctors tell me there's nothing wrong with me that I'm one of the few lucky people who can't remember the things that haunt other people. But that just makes me feel like a freak. I have them and yet I won't remember them. I know I have them because the feelings from the dream still linger and it generally takes me a long time to get out of this mood.

Anyway I must've gotten lost in my thoughts because Sasuke is snapping his fingers in my face. I force myself to focus on the Adonis in front of me- did I just call Sasuke Adonis in my thoughts?- and will my mouth to answer the question after taking a moment to remember the question in the first place.

"I don't remember," my voice slurs slightly and I shake my head to clear off the haze that the nightmare left me in and answer more fully, "I can never seem to remember any of my nightmares. Never have even as a child. Just a few lingering feelings from the dreams."

The Bastard blinks at the statement and shakes his head.

It's late in the evening now. The big wall sized windows in the living room were filled with the soft rays of orange and red, and I am instantly captivated with the way they seem to cast shadows onto Sasuke's face. He really looks beautiful like this. It's good thing it takes me a long time to process that thought. There's soft music playing in the background- some Western Classic I don't know the name of.

Now that I think about it, the apartment always has some kind of music on all the time. I wonder why though?

Fingers snap in front of me again and I startle as I am once again pulled back to present. He's seriously got to stop doing that!

I watch Sasuke sigh. He then takes a deep breath and –"Come on, I made dinner."

"You made dinner? But I-"

"-didn't hear anything? You were too far gone."

"Oh."

"You haven't been sleeping we-"

This time I interrupted him. "That is seriously none of your business."

"I guess," Sasuke easily replied to my hot retort, rolling his eyes.

So I carefully will myself to stand up and make my way over to the kitchen table to find that Sasuke had already set the table and was patiently waiting for me.

We had a quiet dinner with neither of us willing to break the silence. The food itself had a part in it as well. Nothing beats home cooked food even if the said food was as spicy as hell.

"Are you coming? Tomorrow, to the Academy?"

Sasuke breaks the silence and I blink for an entire minute before answering.

"What, missed me at school?" I ask, smirking.

Sasuke snorted.

"You wish," Sasuke replied. There was a flash of something in Sasuke's eyes that let me know that my efforts are not wasted.

"I am, coming back to the Academy, that is," I reply seriously, after taking the time to chew through my food. Sakura would never forgive me if speak before swallowing.

"Hey Bastard, do you mind giving me a ride to school tomorrow? My car's still back at… that place and I need – don't worry about it, I'll call Kaka-sensei," I amended after noticing the way Sasuke nearly flinched at the suggestion.

"I didn't say no," Sasuke says quietly, "Now that you're here we might as well do it until you get your car back. But don't expect me to drive."

I knew there was more to his not-driving-people-around bullshit. But I don't ask him why, knowing very well that I had my own demon's to conquer first. The food is nearly gone now.

"You just like people to drive you around, don't you? Man, I never thought that I'd become someone's personal chauffer though," I remark, smirking at him.

Sasuke stands up and starts clearing the dishes and I move to help. We dump the dishes in the sink. And I turn around to watch as Sasuke slowly starts washing them.

"We could do this in the morning, you know," I say as I go over to dry them.

"I'd like to finish all the work before I go to sleep, dumbass."

"No need to be so rude, Bastard. I was just stating things. No need to go all OCD on me," I mutter with no heat to the insult. His OCD tendencies are cute, not that I'd ever say that to him.

Things are silent in the kitchen except for the sound of running water. With nothing to occupy my mind- drying is something I could do with my eyes closed anyway- I stare at the man next to me, discreetly of course.

His muscles lean flexing every time he leaned to fetch a new dirty dish from the sink. His hands, I noticed, were bigger than mine. How would they feel on my skin? Would they be warm? Or would they be cold?

I quickly turn away to resume my task, knowing very well that I was wasting my time, thinking about things that may or may not happen. There was something peaceful in Sasuke's body language that I didn't want to disturb.

"You don't have to do this, you can go, get some sleep," I hear him say.

"I'm staying here, you know, I might as well earn my keep," I reply.

Another minute and we were finished. I watch as he stores away all the dishes away, noting where they're kept for future purposes. We walk out of the kitchen together.

Just as Sasuke is about to enter his room, I call out for him. I reach him as he turns around, and kiss him. This one is much the same as before. I feel him respond to the kiss before I pull out.

"Thanks," I whisper against his lips.

"For?"

Letting me stay, letting me flirt with you, letting me keep my secrets and not forcing me to divulge and I have a feeling I'm going to be thanking you for a lot of things…..but I can't as well say those things to you now can I?

" _Just…thanks_ ," I whisper in Russian, as I turned to enter my room.

" _You're welcome_ ," is the softest whisper I hear. And by the time I turn around to stare at the Uchiha in shock at the knowledge.

I turn around and enter my room thinking that there was a lot more to the Bastard than what he shows to the world.

 **Review replies:**

 **JuliettK: Thank you for the review. NaruSasuNaru as you said will not be happening any time soon but I'm slowly laying the foundations for it as you've seen in this chapter. I'm happy the plot is enough for you to read the story**

 **So, I'm sorry for the delay. I hope you like the story.**

 **Sasuke and Naruto are slowly starting to get into the groove. This is my first time writing romance or yaoi in general so please tell me if it was okay or not. Just leave me your thoughts in a review.**


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